


Task Force O

by GenderFluidIntake



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - World War II, Dirty Dozen AU, F/F, Inglorious Bastards AU, Major Character Death in later chapters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-10
Updated: 2018-09-26
Packaged: 2019-03-29 11:38:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 29,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13926381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GenderFluidIntake/pseuds/GenderFluidIntake
Summary: World War Two, a hell on earth and a fight no one can hope to truly win.But you might be able to lose just a little less... if you decide to fight dirty.The Army is assembling a team, made up of saboteurs, criminals, deserters, the worst of the worst, and this team might just be the last hope they have.That is, assuming they don't kill each other first.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is inspired very clearly by the films "The Dirty Dozen" and "Inglorious Bastards", as well as the real life World War 2 demo unit nicknamed "The Filthy Thirteen". I highly recommend doing some research into them, they were a fascinating group of soldiers.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!
> 
> (Title was also suggested by BZArcher and is a very fortuitous reference to Suicide Squad, thanks Arch!)

The jeep rumbled along the empty road, discarded shells tumbling around the back and rolling against the prisoner’s legs. From their prone position and with their head covered by a hood, they couldn’t really do anything about that, though they could make their displeasure known.

“Oi! You lot need to clean this shit up! What would your commander say if he saw this mess?”

The driver laughed, turning to his friend in the passenger seat. “What do you think Major Morrison would have to say about the mess Jake?”

Jake snorted, leaning his head back and shouting, “I think he’d say ‘Form up soldier! Doesn’t anyone want to do their jobs?’”

“Ugh…” The prisoner groaned, letting their head fall down and shuffling to clear some of the shells. “Can you at least stop going over so many bumps? I’ve got a cracking headache and I’d rather not make it worse.”

“Sure thing.” A quick swerve to the left and a pothole later, they learned not to open their mouths any more.

By the time the swell of gunfire and barked orders came they were almost thankful. Then they remembered that meant they were entering a military outpost, and given the reason they were tied up in this car to begin with that was the exact opposite of good news.

“Uh… actually boys I’ve changed my mind!” Their voice only got more frantic once the jeep stopped and the driver got out. “We can take a few tours down the road, you can hit all the bumps you want!”

“Sorry doll, but I already had my fill of that this morning.” He wrapped his arm underneath their shoulders, hefting them up and out of the back of the jeep. “Now you’re someone else’s problem.”

“I’m serious! I- oof!” They slipped down to the ground, feet tripping out from under them and their cheek connecting with the dirt through the bag. “Fuuuuuuuuck.”

The driver rolled his eyes, picking them back up again and dragging them across the base. “Look, whatever it was you were up to, I don’t care. But come on, time to face the music.”

Slowly, each step hesitant and shaky, they made their way to where the soldier was leading them. When the gunfire faded slowly to a dull echo they concluded that they were walking deeper into the forest. Which meant that either the soldier had a change of heart or they were going to shoot them.

Since they had no idea where they actually were, neither option was particularly good.

“That’s far enough.” A swift boot to the back of their knees forced them down, not having time to yelp in pain before the hood was yanked off their head. Blinking at the sudden rush of light, they couldn’t see the Major as he approached them, not knowing he was there until they heard his voice.

“Lance-Corporal Lena Oxton. One year in Sicily, back over into France, you got to see a few of the sights in this war.” Major Morrison inspected the rank on her shoulder, shaking his head. “Yet seemingly out of nowhere, a MP patrol finds you eighteen miles away from your post, seemingly making your way as fast as you can away from the war. Why would you decide to desert all of a sudden?”

“Ah, if I may?” She made to raise her finger, just remembering that her hands were tied behind her back. “I was just out for a light jog, those MP’s were a mite overzealous on that front there.”

“A light jog?” He raised his eyebrow, looking at her plainly. “In the middle of the Ardennes forest? Again, eighteen miles away from everyone else.”

“I can’t help my habits mate! Matter of fact you should be talking to those MP’s, what were they doing out there?” She nodded, humming, “You ask me, they were defecting and took a good opportunity to blame it on me.”

He sighed, “Fantastic, another one of these. We know you were defecting, don’t play dumb.”

“Yeah well, that’s your word against mine isn’t it?”

“Yes, and mine holds more weight.” He gestured to the soldier standing guard behind her. “Soldier, gag the prisoner.”

“Oh I see! The minute someone offers a different opini- mmm!”

“You know Major, sooner or later you’re going to run out of gags.” Lena turned her head to her left, only now seeing she wasn’t the only one on their knees. Nor was she the only one who was gagged. “That makes, what? Five gagged soldiers now?”

“It’ll be six if you don’t shut your mouth Reyes.”

“Fair enough.” Reyes chuckled, looking at her and grinning. “Don’t take it personally kid, he’s a hardass with everyone. Needs us all to be scared so he can get his big speech out of the way.”

“Nn ou aagh?”

“Second Lieutenant Gabriel Reyes, United States Marine Corps. I’d shake your hand but…” He shook from side to side. “You know.”

“Nn wah ou ere?”

“Why am I here?” He shrugged. “Because I did my job.”

“Second Lieutenant Reyes shot his Captain and assumed his place in the middle of a heated battle.” Morrison scowled at him. “He is an insubordinate murderer, and against my best wishes he is still gathered here with the rest of you.”

“I guess that’s because most of my men made it out of that battle once I took over.” He smirked, seeing the fury igniting behind Morrison’s eyes. “Yeah, they couldn’t let you forget that could they?”

“Excuse me?” A deep voice rumbled through her chest, immediate panic setting in once she recognized the accent as German. Going by the wince that Reyes got as well, it wasn’t just her who wasn’t used to it. “What are we doing here? We’ve been taken away from the front, and I would like to know why.”

“You’re all here because you’re screw ups.” He tracked his eyes over Lena. “Deserters.” Reyes, a tall, black haired woman she didn’t know. “Murderers.” A dark skinned woman who ducked her head. “Traitors. In normal circumstances you would all be thrown in jail or executed, but these are not normal circumstances.”

“And why is that?” The black haired woman spoke, Lena’s insides melting when she recognized it as French. “You have gathered twelve of us here, what could possibly be the reason for that?”

“Because as much damage you have all caused there is still a way for you all to be useful. That’s why we’re forming a specialized unit, one that is unknown to the rest of the world and unaccountable for its actions.” He pulled a list from his pocket, clearing his throat and reading, “Stand up when your name is announced. Private First-Class Lúcio Correia dos Santos.”

Next to her, another of the gagged soldiers stood, muttering and swearing through the cloth all the while.

“Sergeant First-Class Reinhardt Wilhelm.”

The hulking German took to his feet, stretching his enormous shoulders and grinning.

“Corporal Angela Ziegler, Combat Medic.”

A blonde woman who Lena otherwise hadn’t noticed was next, her eyes tired and her foot tapping impatiently.

“Staff Sergeant Hana Song.”

Yet another gagged soldier, her body language making it clear that she planned to leap at whoever approached her next.

“Trooper Jamison Fawkes and Sapper Mako Rutledge.”

The pair stood, and they were by far the strangest that Lena had seen so far. Jamison, with his hair wild and his clothes covered in soon, giggling through his gag. It was easy to tell who Mako was, gasmask and rank clearly showing he was a sapper. Given the level of soot on his clothes, she had a feeling he was in demolitions.

“Sergeant Fareeha Amari.”

Fareeha got to her feet, squaring her shoulders and taking the stance of an ideal soldier. Given the rest of the… company so far, she looked out of place.

“OSS Agent Olivia Colomar, codename Sombra.” He scowled, almost barking, “Get up.”

She shrugged, shuffling to her feet and somehow managing to smirk through her gag. The Major looked so incensed his hand crept towards his sidearm, but he forced himself to turn away from her and read off the next name.

“Corporal Amelie Lacroix.”

She straightened up, stretching out her long neck and popping the joints in her shoulders. Groans of effort floated towards Lena, and she had to look down before her blush became obvious.

“First Lieutenant Akande Ogundimu, stand up.”

Lena’s eyes widened as Akande rose up, his face otherwise impassive but his eyes filled with… something dark. Like he was a coiled snake who’d already found several opportunities to strike, but was just waiting for the right one.

“Second Lieutenant Gabriel Reyes.”

“About time Jackie.” He grinned, cracking his neck. “What do you say we get these cuffs off now?”

“You’ll get them off when I think you deserve for them to be off. Lance-Corporal Lena Oxton, on your feet.”

Lena scrambled to stand up, her knees scraped and her feet half asleep, but she managed to stand without falling back to the ground. “Mhahhiin ah ooty er!”

Ignoring her, Morrison stepped back into the middle, addressing all of them. “Twelve soldiers, twelve dishonorable, despicable soldiers. No one will know that you’re missing, and no one will care to go and find you. All of you have shown an aptitude either in training or in the field for a certain duty, and these are things that can make you useful.” He turned and started walking away, gesturing with his fingers for them to follow.

“We need all the soldiers we can get on the front lines, and the Germans know this. We’re bleeding more men every day chipping at an iron wall, and all they have to do is focus on not losing any more land. They know what direction we’re coming from, so all they have to do is set up and wait.” They filed into an empty lecture hall, map hung up on the wall for them to see. “That’s where you come in. We’re going to airdrop you in deep behind enemy lines, far out of reach of our supply lines and deeper than they would think to look. From there you are going to cause chaos in their lines and make them constantly look over their shoulder, carving a sporadic trail until you reach…” He tapped his finger against the map. “Kessler Fortress.”

“Kessler Fortress?” Reinhardt raised his eyebrows. “You expect us to break through their defences?”

“We don’t just expect you to, we _ demand _ you do. These are the unconditional requirements for your pardon and release; you will follow our initial instructions  _ to the letter _ during and after your preparatory training, you will follow through with the air drop, you will make the Germans regret ever crawling out of their Hitler Hole, and you will not only  _ take _ Kessler Fortress, you will  _ burn it to the ground. _ ”

Amelie regarded him cooly. “And if we refuse?”

He gestured outside. “Then there is a man with a rifle outside who is willing to enforce your punishment here and now,  _ regardless _ of the nature of your crime.”

Reyes chuckled bitterly, “I want  _ you _ … to have no choice in the matter.”

“So a suicide mission?” Angela spoke from the back, her tone as tired as her eyes. “That is what you offer us?”

“That’s more than you deserve.” He sniffed. “If I had my way  _ all _ of you would be rotting in a military prison, but I see that the war effort is more important. There are things more pressing than… whatever I can see as justice.”

“What better chance is there to see who is the mightier foe?” Akande smiled for the first time, and the sight chilled Lena to the bone. “A small force, unbidden by the rules of warfare, doing what it  _ must _ to survive, not what is  _ allowed _ .” He nodded. “I am very interested.”

“What choice do we have otherwise?” Reyes said, “I’d rather have a chance to shoot back before I die.”

Morrison looked around, seeing grim expressions, angered expressions, and in the case of a worrying few, gleeful expressions. “I take it everyone is in agreement then?”

Slowly, each one of them nodded, some of them swearing under their breaths, others through their gags. Reyes looked around at each of them, slowly starting to laugh as the reality began to set in. “Look at us, a bunch of criminals and fuckups. And they’re entrusting the future of this war to this group of miscreants and vandals, these traitors and murderers, these…” His eyes lit up, saying the next sentence with a surety that none of them had felt more that entire day.

“This Dirty Dozen.”


	2. Chapter 2

The prisoners were finally allowed out of their restraints as soon as they were led into their barracks, and only once there was an armed guard staring at each one of them. Hana was almost snarling, Jamison was giggling, Olivia stood there looking smug, and Lena… well, she was trying to get all of this through her head.

“I know that all of you would love for a chance to shoot me…” Morrison stood in front of the door, unholstering his sidearm and holding it in the air. “In fact it would be child’s play to grab a gun and put a bullet right between my eyes. But I’m going to explain to you why that is a bad idea.”

Reholstering his gun, he held two fingers up, every safety turning off and each weapon being raised in the ready to fire position.

“If any one of you should kill me, or make an attempt to do so, retribution will be handed out to _every_ member of the unit, whether they fired the shot, helped with the attempt, or tried to stop it. _You_ will be your own security, the responsibility for making it through this camp and into the field rests on _you_.” He smirked, sizing up each one of them. “I can tell each one of you hates me, but do you hate me enough to throw away your own life over it? Somehow I doubt that.”

He turned away, marching through the door and leaving them with a parting command. “Rest up. I can admit that today was a trying day, but this is the last chance any of you will have to relax. From tomorrow on, this will be the hardest training of your lives.”

The guards filed out behind him, taking the gags and restraints with them. The door locked behind them, and the occupants knew that there were almost certainly one or two armed guards right outside. Which left twelve soldiers to their own devices, wondering just why the hell they had ended up here and who they had ended up _with_.

“Well,” Reyes said, “I’m going to catch some sleep. I’ve been on the road all day, no sense in wasting an opportunity.”

“Wait!” Lena squeezed her eyes shut once she realized she’d opened her mouth again. “Shouldn’t we, you know, get to know each other a wee bit better? Considering we’re stuck here with each other?”

There was silence as everyone stared at her, and finally all but Jamison, Mako and Lúcio walked away to their bunks. “Righto, that about settles that then doesn’t it?”

She sat down on her bunk, waiting until the three of them sat themselves down awkwardly on the one opposite, Mako in the middle and taking up most of the room. “So, what are you lads in for then?”

“A bunch of bullshit.” Lúcio extended his hand, finally smiling for the first time that day. “Name’s Lúcio, they said I was running away too.”

“And… were you?”

“If you’d accidentally pushed your Lieutenant onto a mine wouldn’t you?” He shrugged, grimacing at the memory. “I was running up to _stop_ him walking into it, but then he took a step backwards and… boop! I fly into him, he falls forward and then…” He didn’t finish, only shuddering. “I wasn’t going to stick around to try and explain, I got out of there!”

Jamison raised his eyebrow. “How far’d ya make it?”

“Not… very far. I’m a fast runner, but they had cars. Not much contest.”

“Wish I coulda been there, no way would you be caught by now, not with me drivin’!” Jamison puffed his chest out, looking proud. “I’m an _excellent_ driver!”

Mako shook his head. His voice was more of a rumble than Lena had expected, but maybe that was just because it was coming through the mask. “Bad driver, you’re the _reason_ we got caught.”

“You can’t hold that against me! How was I supposed ta know those barricades’d be there?”

“ _Told_ you they were there, I _built them_!”

“Um, excuse me?” Lena waved her hand in front of them, trying to get their attention. “Caught for what?”

“Well to get to that I’d haveta tell ya about how me and ol’ Mako met, me bein’ in the Armored Corps and him in the Engineers. Now it all started when we were both on leave…”

“Got drunk,” Mako said, “Blew up ammunition depot.”

“Bloody _corker_ it was!” Jamison had that same manic look in his eye again, like he was remembering something truly euphoric. “I swear it almost got us! Ears were ringin’ for _hours_!”

Lena’s jaw dropped open, she’d been around a few of those depots and the idea of one actually exploding… “Was it near a base?”

“Oh yeah, absolutely levelled the whole place!” Jamison winced. “Hoo boy they didn’t like that one bit.”

“Caught us, almost killed us.” Mako shrugged. “Ended up here instead.”

Lena nodded slowly, looking to the side and seeing Lúcio wearing a similar expression of shock. “Sounds like a… right party that does.” She tilted her head at Mako, pointing at her face. “What’s uh… what’s with the mask?”

“Like how it feels.”

“Don’t those come with flamethrowers?” Lúcio asked.

Mako nodded. “Like how it feels.”

“Righto.” She flipped her feet up onto her bunk, laying her head back against the pillow and staring up at the ceiling. She listened to the three of her new acquaintances talking amongst themselves, finally getting up and walking over to the other side of the room to do… something. “Maybe getting some sleep isn’t such a bad idea after all…”

From the next bunk over, Reyes laughed. His eyes were closed and his mouth stretched in a wide smile, head resting on his hands in his relaxation. “One conversation with your fellow squadmates and you’re ready to give up already?”

She leaned on her side, whispering harshly at him, “They blew up an ammo depot! And one likes _burning_ people!”

“Trust me, from what I hear that’s not the worst that any of us have done here.” He pointed over at Akande, who was standing stock still with his arms behind his back, watching out the window at the other soldiers training. “Way that the guards were looking at him you’d think he was the goddamn boogieman. That sort of shit never bodes well.”

“How do you know?”

He shrugged. “Because I made it a point to cultivate that sort of image for myself. You gotta do some bad shit if you want it to stick.”

“Like kill your superior?”

Reyes grinned, snapping his fingers. “Bingo. Exactly like killing your superior.”

“Why’d you do it?” She sat up, tilting her head in curiosity. “You had to know that you’d be caught.”

“I was unsatisfied with his leadership, and acted accordingly.” He frowned. “Trust me kid, it’s just as simple as that.”

“But you really had to shoot him? There weren't any other options?”

“We were in the middle of a firefight, under mortar fire, completely cut off from our support, and this idiot is making us sit there with our thumbs in our asses. I lost three more men because they were sitting in a bombed out cafe that they shouldn’t have been.” He sat up, leaning in close and speaking very seriously. “Trust me, me putting my gun to his forehead and pulling the trigger was one of the best calls I made that day. I didn’t lose anyone pulling out, and I left his body there for the Germans to clean up.”

He chuckled at the memory, “I actually managed to lead for a full day before they figured out what happened, then they slapped the cuffs on me and that was that.”

Lena looked down at her feet, scuffed on the toes from where she had fallen numerous times, almost been shot numerous times… and from when she had run away. “Do you regret it?”

“There were thirty-seven men that went on that patrol, two squads. By the time we made it back there were twenty-three. The only thing I regret is not pulling that trigger sooner.” He sighed, falling onto his back and fluffing his pillow up. “Word of advice? Don’t get attached to any of us here. You heard the barrel of sunshine over there…” He pointed vaguely in Angela’s direction. “This is a suicide mission. None of us are going to be around long enough to make it worth it.”

“You really think that?”

“What, are you kidding me?” He peeked his head up, looking around the room at the different soldiers. Lúcio trying in vain to speak to Hana, Angela sitting on the bed with a blank expression, Jamison doing… whatever it was that Jamison did. “With a group like this I’ll be shocked if all of us make it through the first _drop_.”

And it was with that last thought in her head that Lena let herself fall into sleep, the aches from the bumpy road and rolling shells melting out of her as she sank into the mattress.

It was the last good night’s sleep she would have for a long time.

 

Given that she had spent the last two days running for her life, she supposed there was some irony in their first exercise being a two mile run. And when they said run, they meant _run_.

“All of you hurry up!” Morrison ran alongside them, easily keeping pace with even the fastest of them. At least he was putting his money where his mouth was. “I expect you to demolish this time, you should have been running this for your _second_ time by now!” He ran ahead of them, cupping his hands around his mouth and shouting, “Whoever are the last two to finish will run this course _again_!”

“Fuckin’ asshole…” Hana growled, still in the middle of the pack but working to _stay_ there. Mako and Jamison were bringing up the rear, neither of them out of shape but not quite used to running like this since training. She was tempted to sprint ahead, she was more than capable of staying in the lead, but that just… rubbed her wrong.

“I can’t bloody believe I’m doing this…” She slowed herself, letting everyone pass her by steadily until she was right next to Jamison. When he looked at her in confusion she winked, his lips spreading across his face and a giggle bubbling out of him.

“You’re alright mate, y’know that?”

“Oh yeah? What about me?” Lúcio fell in step next to Mako, keeping pace easily and shrugging. “What? Couldn’t let you be back here all alone.”

Lena laughed, looking back forward and seeing Reyes staring at her. He shook his head, obviously annoyed at her ignoring his advice, but she thought she saw the first hints of a smile on his face. She wouldn’t know for sure, given that Morrison’s face soon intruded into her view.

“Why are you so slow Oxton? I thought you loved running, that’s why you were deserting wasn’t it?”

She nodded. “Yes Sir! Unless I have something to run away from though I don’t see the point!”

Chuckles ran through the line, even Akande giving a brief shake of his shoulders, but Morrison wasn’t amused. “That’s very funny Lance-Corporal! I wonder if you’ll be able to tell jokes once you ran this course another two times?”

Once again, she cursed her inability to stay quiet, but she decided if she was already screwed, hey? What’s the worst that could happen?

“Of course Sir! Will you be joining me?” She was going to be running another four miles once this was over, she’d be damned if she was doing it alone. He looked momentarily surprised by the challenge, but there wasn’t any other answer he could give without losing control over them.

“Of course, someone has to make sure you don’t run away when our backs are turned!” He sprinted ahead, leading the pack as they ran through the woods. “Faster dammit, if we do not finish this run in the next ten minutes I will make sure _everyone_ goes again!”

Lúcio and Lena pulled back slightly, making sure that Jamison and Mako were just in front of them. At least they would only have to do this once. Though her legs were already starting to ache just from the thought of what lay ahead of her.

“Bollocks,” She said, “I should’ve stayed in the bloody Ardennes...”

 

By the time she and Morrison reached the firing range after their impromptu marathon, she was sure she was going to black out. Morrison was keeping it together, but even he was clearly acting better than he felt, his shirt drenched in sweat and his throat ragged from the effort.

The rest of the group were sitting by enjoying the small break, feet up on the sandbags and water in their hands. Even so, when Lena stumbled up and almost collapsed against the makeshift barricade Jamison was quick to jump up, jogging over to her and leaning down with a canteen.

“Here ya go mate, give that a guzzle.” He tilted her head back, letting the water drip in and grinning happily when she swallowed. “That’s better! A real loon this one is!”

Angela walked over, dropping to one knee and looking at her critically. “You’ll be fine with some rest, but I would suggest not doing that too often. You’ll likely pass out and die.”

They watched her go back to her seat, resuming polishing the empty pistol that she was going to practice with. Jamison giggled, throwing his thumb over his shoulder and tapping Lena’s arm. “Barrel o’ laughs that one is!”

“Alright that’s enough chatter.” Morrison took his stance in front of them, range behind him and a line of armed guards flanking them. They were still getting used to the latter. “We already know that some of you possess skills with a firearm, that is why some of you were chosen.” He nodded begrudgingly at Amelie and Reyes. “But regardless, we need to make sure that your skills will keep everyone else in the unit alive. Which is why I expect all of you to have at least an eighty-percent of your shots hit the targets. We have heard reports of soldiers intentionally missing to avoid taking life and I will. Not. Tolerate that.”

“Finally,” Reyes scoffed, “We agree on something.”

“Reyes, you’re first up. Don’t try anything.”

“I know, I know…” He rolled his eyes while he picked up his shotgun, smirking at the rifles pointing at him. “Get ready to shit yourselves boys.”

Lena wasn’t sure if it was because there was sweat running in her eyes, but she was certain that he hadn’t actually aimed his first shot before he fired, the gun rising to his eye level faster than she could blink and buckshot disintegrating the head of the target in front of him. He racked the slide back viciously, firing the second shot before the splinters had even stopped falling, the chest of the next target going the way of the first. The next three were made short work of, the shotgun resting across his shoulders while he looked back at the guards with an audacious grin.

“How about that? You reckon you’d be faster than me?”

“Lieutenant.” Morrison walked in front of him, holding his hand out. “Surrender the firearm.”

Reyes shoved it into his grip, pushing past him and taking his seat. “You’re the boss, boss.”

“Lacroix, you’re up next.”

Pushing through and taking her position, she didn’t even wait until he had stopped talking before she loaded her rifle, looking through the sight for a few seconds and firing steadily until the rifle clicked empty. She threw the rifle down, already back in her seat by the time he looked through his binoculars.

“All headshots, very impressive.”

“Bloody hell luv...” Lena sidled up to her, her breath under control but her libido very much _not_. “What did you do to end up here then?” She was already sliding closer when the answer caught her off-guard.

“I killed a man who was propositioning me. I did not appreciate his attentions.”

“Ah.” She nodded slowly to herself, sliding herself slowly away. “Right, sounds like he really deserved it. What a… what a _pig_. I uh… wish you a very platonic day!”

“Oxton. Enough talking, get over here.”

“Me?” She walked over, inspecting the guns in front of her. “Sir? Why are these all Yank guns?”

“Because this is a taskforce being put together by the American government, that’s what we’ll be sending you in with.” He shrugged, and for a moment he almost looked human. “Don’t worry, we’ll give you a short course in German guns, they’re what you’ll have to pick up in the field eventually.”

“Alright then…” She looked over each of her options, thinking to herself before picking up the closest one. “Oooo I like the feel of this one!”

“Thompson, M1A1. A fine piece of engineering. If you’ve used a Sten you’ll know what to do, just need to get used to the weight.”

She loaded the Thompson, shaking out her shoulders and emptying her lungs. Aiming was simple enough, the weight awkward at first but easy to adapt to. Firing was a simple as squeezing the trigger.

The gun rattled to life, .45 slugs sailing into the target in front of her and punching holes through its chest. The empty magazine was pulled loose and replaced by a new one smoothly, her second target not standing a chance as those heavy round sliced through its stomach and split it in half.

“Yeah,” She said, giggling as the top half of the target fell to the ground. “I _really_ like this one.”

“Impressive Oxton,” Morrison huffed, “We might just make a soldier out of you yet.”

 

Everyone one else had their turn eventually, Angela and Hana showing some particular talent with their sidearms. As a combat medic and a tank driver respectively, they were generally not using much else, though they would still be brushing up on others. Olivia took to a submachine gun as easy as breathing, giving Lena a run for her money in accuracy.

They had to move to the explosives range to see what some of them were _really_ good at, she never thought that she would ever have described anyone as a “surgeon with a bazooka”, but after seeing Fareeha work Lena was learning that this was a very unique group indeed.

Reinhardt wasn’t anything special to write home about when it came to firearms, but when he was asked to demonstrate how to take someone down with a bayonet none of the assigned partners that were chosen from the guards could even touch him. Lena guessed that he hadn’t exactly gotten those muscles peacefully. The same went for Akande, who was as fearsome with his sidearm as he was with his fists, coming dangerously close to wrenching his partner’s arm out of its socket before a warning shot was fired.

“Alright, we have one final task for you before the day’s practice is over.” Morrison handed a card to one of the guards, pointing towards them and nodding. “What this soldier is carrying is the goal, I want you to look at it, I want you to study it.”

The soldier stopped in front of them, holding up a plain sheet of red paper.

“This piece of paper is a stand in for a document, a POW, anything that you can think of that would be critical in a mission!” Morrison swept his hand out behind him. “We’ve filled the forest with hidden patrols, traps, anything that you might encounter in the fields of Germany!”

Mako took a close look at the soldier, the shorter man shifting uneasily in the wake of his gas mask.

“Your objective today is to get that piece of paper, by any means necessary!”

Mako’s fist crunched into the soldier’s nose, the crack of breaking bone and cartilage echoing in the trees as he crumpled down to the ground. Gingerly, with his index finger and his thumb, Mako plucked the paper out of the soldier’s hand, holding it up for Morrison to clearly see.

“Got it.”

Even Angela was struggling not to smile, a hand unsuccessfully muffling her giggles. Lena thought it was adorable.

“Well,” Reyes said, not even bothering to hide his laughter. “You did say any means necessary.”

Morrison didn’t look impressed, but he reluctantly conceded the point. “I suppose the point of this whole unit _is_ getting unconventional fighters… fine, you can go back to your quarters for now. We’ll do the forest exercise another day.” He started to walk away, muttering to himself, “All that preparation for nothing…”

“Well…” Reinhardt looked at the rest of the group, clapping his hands together. “I managed to talk them into letting me use the kitchen! I can show you how a true warrior eats!”

“So long as you let us keep an eye on you,” Olivia shuddered, “I’ve had it up to here with fucking Sauerkraut…”

Lena watched them file towards the mess hall, already forming their own little groups. Lúcio had managed to get Hana to let him stay near, Mako and Jamison were as inseparable as ever, even Fareeha was working on connecting with Angela. Olivia, Reinhardt, Reyes and Akande weren’t exactly speaking, but they were at least walking in the same direction. Which just left her and… Amelie.

“Heya luv!” She said, hopping next to the Frenchwoman and smiling. “You’re pretty handy with that rifle of yours, got any tips for me?”

“Yes,” She said, “The best key to being a good marksman is silence.”

“Ah…” Lena deflated, nodding slowly to herself. “Good to know, good to know.”

Amelie took one look at her, trying to maintain her critical expression but giving up after a few seconds. “Fine,” She said, rolling her eyes, “If you are truly interested I can give you a few tips after dinner.”

“That sounds good luv.” She grinned, walking forwards with an extra pep in her step. “That sounds good.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter? This early? I must be really excited about this story!
> 
> Now because I'm a huge nerd, here are the guns they used:  
> [Reyes' shotgun, the Ithaca 37](http://www.collectorsfirearms.com/product_images/p/063/S2811a__73095.jpg)  
> [Lena's new favorite, the Thompson M1A1](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/31/a7/35/31a73584fd5a63649bdcbdb48a303c05.jpg)  
> [Amelie's precision m1903 Springfield](http://www.snipercentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/m1903a4.jpg)  
> [Their sidearms, the very trusty 1911A1](https://www.legacy-collectibles.com/pub/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/beff4985b56e3afdbeabfc89641a4582/i/m/img_9085_3.jpg)
> 
> I'm very happy to announce that I've been added to the FemWatch Zine with so many other talented artists and authors, they released the list yesterday I'm sure a bunch of you already know that, but give the list a look [here](https://femwatchthezine.tumblr.com/post/171779673911/artistswriters-announcement), you might find some new people to check out!  
> Until next time!


	3. Chapter 3

“So, Hana right?” Lúcio grunted, completing his eighth pushup. “So what’s someone like you doing here? Just can’t think of why you would be.”

She looked sideways at him, completing her tenth before saying, “What’s that supposed to mean?” She scoffed, “ _Shi-bal…_ ”

“Oh no I didn’t mean it like that, I was just uh… how’d you end up here if you were in a tank?”

“Lúcio! Hana!” Morrison stepped between them, leaning down and speaking harshly, “Keep the chatter to a minimum, if you can’t keep it down when you’re in training how am I supposed to believe you’ll do it in the field?”

He stood, walking away from the two of them and from Hana’s venomous gaze. “ _Gae-sae-kki_.”

“Well?” Lúcio whispered, “What are you here for then?”

“Look, I just want to finish here, yeah? We can talk when everyone else is around, I don’t want to have this conversation twice.”

“I hear you, I hear you...” He did two more pushups, leaning on his elbow and asking another question. “Hey how old are you?”

She snorted, “Why? You thinking about trying something?”

“Woah hey! I wasn’t…” He sighed, returning to his exercise. “You know what? You win this one. But this isn’t over.”

“Sure thing Luci.”

 

“You know Mako, I’m not really sure what to think about this Morrison fella y’know?” Jamison pulled his chin over the bar, wiry muscles straining through the skin. “Seems like a right cunt ey?”

Mako grunted, hefting the heavy dumbbells with ease.

“Now I’m not sayin’ we’re the most upstandin’ of soldiers, I’ll admit we maaaaaybe shouldn’t’ve blown that depot up. But stickin’ us in this here secret unit with one of the most uncharismatic dog faces this side of the Rhine, now that is just cruel and unusual. Doncha think?”

“Mm.” Mako dropped the weights, getting on his hands and starting his pushups.

“Boy I tell ya...” He strained, lifting himself up for one more chin up. “‘F I ever get me hands on who came up with this idea I’ll shove my bloody 40mm right up his arse.”

“That was me soldier.” Morrison stood in front of him, arms behind his back and eyebrow raised.

Jamison blanched, throwing himself into a salute and chuckling awkwardly. “And a bloody idea it was too mate! Happy ta be here!”

Morrison stared at him, shaking his head before turning away and moving towards the next small group.

“Phew, was almost in trouble there ay?” Jamison giggled, “Gave ‘im the old Jamison charm.”

Mako sighed, fixing the weights on the bar and laying down on the bench. “Idiot.”

 

“Ha! Such a small amount of weight! Surely you are stronger than this?” Reinhardt dropped more weights in front of Reyes, chest rumbling with a deep laugh.

“It’s not about how much I can lift, but I’ll take your challenge.” He smirked. “Old man.”

“Much better!” Reinhardt loaded up his own bar, lifting it easily even as the bar strained under the weight. “Now, why did you join in this fight?”

Reyes shrugged, loading up his bar and sitting down. “Good paycheck, thought it’d help out my _madre_. Got here and it turns out I’m pretty good if you put a gun in my hand, thinking about staying on after all of this. Or, well, I _was_.”

“The tragedy of doing what is right, we are so often punished for it! But that doesn’t matter too much does it?” Reinhardt sat up, wiping his face with a nearby rag. “We do what we must, _because_ we must, to protect those who cannot protect themselves.”

“Wow you really bought hard into all that huh? What’s a German like you doing here anyway? I didn’t think the Brits got along with your people.”

“Ah, that’s because I was captured rather than imprisoned! I fought my own fight, to take back my homeland from the Nazi _Schweine!_ ”

“So you’ve been doing this for a while then?”

“Since the day of the first shots! It is my duty as a German to defend my homeland from its enemies!” He hung his head sadly. “So many do not realize who the true enemy is though.”

Reyes hung up his weight, shaking out his arms and wiping his sweat away. “They’ll learn. Once they’ve been beaten into the ground and forced to accept the consequences, they’ll learn they were wrong.”

“Not everyone believes in the evil that black hearted bastard is spouting, some are just… scared.”

“Well when it comes down to it old timer, I don’t really care what the guy on the other end of my gun is thinking.” Reyes stood, slapping Reinhardt’s back as he passed by. “If you’re scared, if you’re happy, doesn’t matter. You point a gun at me I am laying you out, no exceptions.”

“Yes…” He nodded. “That is the rule of war…”

 

“So you’re a medic?” Fareeha jogged along, easily keeping pace with Angela. “What made you choose that position?”

“It was given to me,” She replied, measuring each beat of her heart in her head. “If I had a choice I wouldn’t have done it.”

“Oh? Why’s that?”

“Have you ever done a jigsaw puzzle? They’re a lot harder to complete when they’re slippery and screaming at you.”

“Ah.” Fareeha winced. “That sounds unpleasant.”

“Mm… After that horror show in _Monte Cassino_ I think I’ve gone off the healing role quite heavily.” She turned to Fareeha, smiling as warmly as she could. “Don’t worry, if you get your arm blown off I’ll be there to hold onto it for you.”

Fareeha stopped in her tracks, leaving Angela to run forward on her own undisturbed. “That’s… wonderful.”

 

“So you’re Akande huh? My name’s Olivia…”

“Do not speak to me, traitor.”

Olivia smacked her lips, going back to punching the bag. “Alright then...”

 

“So this bloke you offed, the one who wanted you to be singin’ _viva la france_ , was he someone special or...?”

Amelie scoffed, “He was not special to _me._ I’d killed far more interesting people by then, by the dozens. He was just some cocksure _connard_ who assumed that I could be wooed by a bottle of wine and a few fireworks.”

“And…” Lena started cautiously, “Can you?”

“But of course! I have to actually feel some attraction to the partner though, repulsive little cretins don’t really give me any sort of feeling.”

“Fair enough.” Lena sat up, arms resting on her knees and tilting her head in thought. “What’d you do when he wouldn’t take no for an answer?”

“It had been a long night, and I was in no mood for his badgering.” She chuckled darkly at the memory, a sight that Lena would tuck away for certain nights alone. “He was in the middle of speaking when I pulled out my browning, put it to his temple and watched him fall limp in the middle of the alleyway. Of course he had been about to tell me who his father was, so perhaps I was a little hasty.”

Lena giggled, “This is getting good, who was his father then?”

“The General in charge of the entirety of our forces in Holland.” She pouted at Lena’s laugh, but she wasn’t making an effort to contain her own smile. “Yes it is hilarious, I’m shocked that I wasn’t shot on the spot.”

“Wow luv, that’s… no wonder you ended up here!” She turned, seeing Major Morrison walking towards them. “Hey Sir, did you hear why Amelie was here?”

“Of course I did, I picked her myself.” He squared his feet, looking Amelie over curiously. “What was the General’s name? Jones?”

“Davies.”

“Ah.” He shrugged, clicking his tongue slightly. “Much as I disapprove of your actions, and think that ideally you would have been held accountable for them, I have to admit that aside from the General no one is going to miss his son. Now carry on, conversation requires an extra twenty push ups.”

“Alright, alright.” Lena shook her arms out, watching his back as he walked away. “Wanker.”

 

Lena sat at the table, Lúcio on one side and Jamison on the other, both of them speaking animatedly to their partner. Lena however was staring off to the side, wondering just why no one seems to be willing to speak that much to Olivia.

“Oi luv,” She said, “What’s the big deal? Did you do something real bad or something?”

Olivia snorted, taking a bite of her Spam. “Haven’t we all _chica?_ ”

“Agent Colomar is not well liked because in a unit of thieves and murderers she is without a doubt the most cowardly.” Morrison drained the rest of his coffee, sliding the cup to the side and standing up. “Why don’t you recite what exactly you were apprehended for?”

“I… found some things that I shouldn’t have found, and I put them in a place I shouldn’t have put them...”

“She _stole_ classified information, a list of active double agents in the western and eastern fronts, and was preparing to sell it to the highest bidder.” He made no secret of his distaste, every word out of his mouth dripping with venom. “When she was found out she killed three fellow agents and fled the scene, almost making it to Bucharest before she was apprehended.”

“You sold us out to the Germans?” Lena narrowed her eyes at her, fists clenching. “ _Why?_ ”

Olivia shrugged. “They paid better. Not like I was giving them anything we weren’t going to get rid of eventually anyway.”

“Agent Colomar is a coward and a traitor, if anyone sees evidence of her continuing this in the field they have permission to shoot her where she stands. Reyes, you’re good at shooting your own men, I trust you can handle that?”

Reyes didn’t look up from his meal, mock saluting with his fork. “Aye aye captain.”

“Now you listen to me Colomar…” Morrison leaned in, table creaking under the grip of his fists. “You were chosen against my recommendation because of your knowledge on the enemy and experience with deniable operations. If it was up to me you would have two slugs in the back of your skull and be rotting underneath the Bucharest soil, but such things were out of my hands.”

“Well, lucky me then huh?”

“Make no mistake agent, this unit had a recommended number of twelve. Twelve highly trained, capable soldiers. A _recommendation,_ not a _requirement._ I will happily send this unit in a man short if I think you have outgrown your usefulness, I suggest you keep that in mind.”

“Geez,” Hana said, “All I did was run over my CO when he wouldn’t get out of my way.”

Lúcio turned to her, horrified. “ _That’s_ what you did? Was he in a car or…?”

“No he was in the tracks.” Hana grimaced at the memory. “Pain in the ass to clean up…”

“Now that you know each other a little better, and know who to watch out for even more, I suggest that you all turn in to your quarters. You have a very long day ahead of you tomorrow, and the start of the operation is approaching day by day. It won’t be long before you are deep in the german countryside, so we are going to be pushing you to your absolute limits.”

“Will there be a quiz?” Reyes pointed over at Jamison. “I have a feeling some of us might not be good at that.”

“Oi!”

“Turn in soldiers, that’s no longer a suggestion. That’s an _order._ ” Morrison smirked, looking directly at Mako. “Tomorrow you take on the forest challenge.”

 

“Great, now we’ve got to find a stupid slip of paper and pretend it’s Hitler’s knickers or whatever.” Lena sighed, tossing under her covers. “I can’t believe we’re doing this…”

“Well believe it Oxton, and better yet, be quiet about it.” Reyes turned over, pulling his pillow over his ears. “I can only take a lack of sleep for so long before I get mad…”

“Psst, oi, don’t worry about him mate.” Jamison’s teeth almost seemed to glow, Lena still not sure if maybe he was part dog. “Big day for all of us tomorrow, finally get to show what we’re made of yeah?”

“I guess…” She closed her eyes, trying to block out the lingering doubt that she had over her own abilities. She sighed, muttering to herself, “I made it through bloody Sicily, made it through France, I’ll be buggered if I’m going to let some snot nosed yanks get the better of me.”

Lena felt herself calm down, all thoughts of the war going away and leaving her with one simple desire; The desire to win.

Well, that and a certain Frenchwoman’s laugh… “Bloody hell,” She thought, “That’s the last thing I needed in this war. Another bloody distraction.”

Though, she figured, at least this one was more than capable of holding her own. As long as she was watching the horizon and Lena was watching the rear, they had a good chance of making it through this.

She should have learned by now that war was not so easy to predict.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short one, but I didn't want the next chapter to feel overstuffed. Hope you enjoy revealing backstories! When Hana says you better get out of the way, it's probably best to listen.
> 
> Please spread this around to your friends! This story is a baby of mine and I want it to reach as many people as possible, so please, tell your people what you liked about this!
> 
> Feedback is also always welcome, even if it's just a "Good chapter!"
> 
> Until next time!


	4. Chapter 4

Sitting there among the trees, Lena couldn’t help but be reminded of the Ardennes. There was less snow, and the trees weren’t turning into shrapnel every half hour, but those few minutes of tranquility where it was just the wind and yourself… that was something that was universal it seemed.

“Bloody place is nothin’ like Tunisia.” Jamison sniffed, looking around them. “Be a hell of a lot easier if we just levelled the place.”

“Yep, and then they’d be able to see us just fine.” Reyes looked off into the distance, scanning between trees for signs of Morrison’s men. “But you’re definitely someone with their head on their shoulders, I’m _sure_ you thought about that.”

“Everyone quiet.” Akande cracked his neck, looking in the opposite direction. “What is the situation on your side?”

“I’m not seeing anyone, but that’s the point isn’t it.” Reyes huffed a laugh, “The Desert Rat’s right, this _would_ be a lot easier if there were no trees.”

“I’m an Aussie mate, not a pom.”

“Jamison I can assure you I do _not_ care.”

“There is one over on the west side, three-hundred yards away.” Amelie narrowed her eyes, observing the speck of a man running low to the ground. “He looks to be meeting with a group of his men, likely to approach our position.”

“Well that’s not good,” Lucio said, “Maybe if we’d kept our voices down…”

“Good idea, why don’t you start now?” Reyes shook his head, gesturing for everyone to get close. “Alright here’s what’s going to happen; right now they’re talking about how to approach us, they’re gonna break up into three groups, a main force coming at us from the front and two teams of three or four men on either side. They’re going to box us in and leave us nowhere to go.”

Fareeha nodded. “The terrain is bad on either side, so it will be a few minutes until they can reach here.”

“Exactly.” He nodded to Akande. “My recommendation is that you take three of us and flank their right side. I’ll take another three and take the left, we meet up and trap the main force between us.”

“Um…” Lena raised her hand, “What about the four of us that are left over?”

“One of you will be the distraction, run in between trees, throw a punch or two, scream a bunch of crazy bullshit.” He grinned. “You just volunteered for that.”

She threw her hands up in frustration. “Oh bloody tops.”

Hana frowned. “And the last three?”

“That’s gonna be you, Jamison and Lucio.” He grinned, starting to chuckle as he leaned in and whispered, “I think you’re gonna like the job that I have for you…”

 

“This. Is. Bollocks.” Lena trudged through the underbrush, empty pistols cradled in her hands and a scowl on her face. The other two teams had split off to each side, making their way as silently as they could considering each one had at least one member that was over 6 feet tall and could hardly crouch and stay hidden.

She meanwhile was trying to make the best of the awful situation she’d been placed in, collecting a pocketful of small rocks that she could peg at any unlucky soldiers that got in her way. Like the straggler for the western squad, remaining behind and scanning the trees for any sign of her squadmates. A quick glance at his face confirmed that he was the one who had driven her to the camp, so she definitely didn’t feel bad about what she did next.

Holstering one of the pistols, she exchanged it with a rock about the size of her fist, tossing it lightly to test the weight before waiting for the exact right moment for her to strike. As soon as he glanced backwards and made eye contact with her she knew that was it.

Hurling the stone with all her might and yelling to get their attention, she watched the rock sail through the air until it made contact with his nose, crunching the delicate cartilage and deflecting downwards into his mouth, teeth shattering and splintering into his lips. He screamed out in pain, collapsing down to the ground and drawing the eye of the rest of his teammates.

“Ha! Maybe they’ll give you a purple heart!” She yelled, sprinting as fast as she could away from them. “You fuckin’ wanker!”

“Get her!” The squad leader screamed, “She can’t get far! She’s-”

His orders were cut off as a hulking, howling german charged right into the middle of his group, sending them all flying and one unfortunate grunt slamming backfirst into a nearby tree. The leader shook his head in a daze, trying to get to his feet before a foot was planted on his chest.

“I would not do that,” Amelie said, slamming the butt of her rifle into his temple.

“I surrender!” The last conscious soldier threw his hands up, not eager to end up like his two companions.

Olivia trotted up to him, smirking and placing the barrel of her Thompson against his forehead. “Bang. Not taking prisoners behind enemy lines.” She slammed the gun forward, the soldier collapsing backwards and grabbing at his bleeding forehead.

Reyes trotted up, grinning at each of them. “Nicely done everyone, especially you old man. Remind me not to get on your bad side.”

“Ha! I think you should only worry about being on my front side.” Reinhardt knelt down, checking the pulse of the soldier still wrapped around the tree and nodding in satisfaction. “Good! They didn’t die this time!”

“ _This time?_ ” Olivia raised an eyebrow. “How many times have you done this?”

“Many! No need for a key when you take away the door!”

“Quiet.” Amelie watched through the trees once more, making out the two groups in the distance. “You were right, the eastern squad has three men while the main force is still moving steadily with nine. They… oh my god…”

“What?” Reyes knelt next to her. “What do you see?”

She shuddered. “I find myself very glad I am not one of the soldiers in the east…”

 

Lena hadn’t even needed to do anything other than yell before the eastern squad was taken down, Akande’s team moving so fast she could hardly see them. Angela had slipped behind one of the soldiers, sliding her arm around his throat and dragging him behind a tree before the other two could notice, their focus purely on where Lena had shouted from.

Fareeha and Mako weren’t nearly so subtle, Mako swinging a log through the air and taking his target’s legs out from under him, grabbing his foot and dragging him screaming back into the brush. Fareeha threw her entire gun at the last man, snapping his head back and spearing her shoulder into his stomach, taking him down to the ground and slamming her fist into his throat. It was over so fast Lena almost missed it by blinking, though it was impossible to miss Akande’s satisfied, cruel smirk.

“Weak.” He sneered down at the fallen soldier’s, nudging the face of the one still clutching at their throat with his foot. “No wonder you need people like us.”

“Orders sir?” Fareeha nodded to herself, satisfied that the soldier was not going to stand up again.

“Form up and stay low, we’re approaching the main force now.”

Lena took that as her cue, grabbing yet another rock and jogging steadily towards the final team. These ones had a much better view on things, at least one man watching every direction that they could be coming from, it wasn’t going to be easy to approach.

Pulling her arm back, she let go of the rock and watched it sail through the air, hitting the soldier on the opposite side from her in the back of the shoulder.

“Ah, fuck!” He grunted, turning and looking back to where she had thrown it from. “Who did tha-”

Another rock hit him from the direction he’d just turned from, the other soldiers by now realizing what was happening. “Goddammit, keep your eyes out for who’s doing that! I haven’t got time to do your jobs too!”

The other soldiers grumbled but kept their guard up, only just hearing the dull thump of boots on the dirt before their visions filled with giants. Reinhardt and Mako stormed into the middle of the group, knocking guns away and slamming soldiers to the ground. Reinhardt grabbed one by his ankle, swinging him to the side and sending him flying into the team leader, the both of them crumpling to the ground.

Akande rushed forward, fist shooting out and snapping a soldier’s head to the side, teeth flying and eyes rolling into the back of his head, before slamming his elbow back into a second’s nose. Lena had to admit that a part of her found the sight of those three incredibly large men tearing through a group of trained soldiers like that pretty intimidating.

But another part of her knew she had to get in on the action herself.

Sprinting forward with a whooping cheer, she leapt up into the air and sent her feet careening forward into the back of the first man she could see, both of them falling to the ground with a grunt. Seeing him stir, she shot her foot out and caught him on the chin, the soldier rolling over onto his back and groaning in pain.

“Never got to do this shit in Belgium…” She laughed to herself, gasping when a boot slammed into her side. She looked up at the face of the soldier she’d thrown the rock at, pistol cocked and aimed down at her face. Come to think of it, she didn’t know if it was loaded or not.

“I have had it with you and your entire group, you useless pack of crim-” His head snapped forward, so sharply that his chin almost touched his chest, blood starting to run down his forehead and dripping onto her cheek. She rolled to the side just in time to avoid his weight crashing down onto her, grunting and rubbing her side.

“I hope you don’t rely on me _all_ the time to save you _cherie._ ” Amelie offered her hand, smirking as she pulled Lena to her feet.

“Not gonna rely, but I’ll be pleasantly surprised when you do.” They stood there, laughing to themselves just as Reyes stomped on the hand of the last soldier, grinding it into the dirt and scoffing at his screams of pain.

“That’s the last of them, looks like-”

“Looks like you’ve just been captured.” Morrison strode out into view, flanked on both sides by six men with rifles aimed at the ready. “A good performance, but you forgot one very important thing…” He tapped his chest pocket, red paper visible underneath his hand. “Sometimes you need to capture, not destroy.”

“Oh bollocks.” Lena kicked at the dirt, clenching her fist in frustration. Looking around she could see that everyone else felt much the same way, Akande not giving anything away other than a slight pinching of his eyebrows, while Fareeha looked as though she was ready to kill the next person she saw. Maybe there _was_ a reason she was here after all.

Curiously though, Reyes never dropped his smile, throwing his arms out wide and saying, “Is that what you think Jackie?”

Morrison rolled his eyes and shrugged. “I think what I see, and what I see is you surrounded. Please enlighten me on how I’m wrong.”

“Well for starters, your counting skills need work.” He pointed around him, and for the first time Morrison realized that the numbers were three short. “Second of all, it was obvious that none of these rubes had the paper, they were just for fun. And third…”

“Ping!” A long hand poked over Morrison’s shoulder, snatching the paper out of his pocket and pulling it behind him. The Major turned in place, ready to throw his fist into whoever it was but stopped himself just in time.

Jamison held a rock up in the air, handing the paper off to Hana, who took it without a second glance. “This is a grenade by the way mate, I know it just looks like a rock but trust me, it’s just a rock shaped grenade!” He giggled, tossing it onto the ground in front of Morrison. “And now you’ve all carked it.”

“If you want the big boss to make an appearance, you’ve got to weed through the small fry.” Reyes marched up, clapping his hand on Morrison’s shoulder. “Thanks for being predictable. I think that’s a passing mark, don’t you?”

His eyelid twitched, but nonetheless he nodded. “Excellent redirection, textbook flanking and and target acquisition. Much as it annoys me to say this, your team outplayed me today.” He put his hand up. “Dismissed, report to the mess hall for dinner in twenty minutes. As a reward Reinhardt can be responsible for your meals again.”

“Alright!” Lena and Lucio grinned, already marching off to the mess hall with Amelie and Hana in tow.

“Oi wait up!” Jamison grabbed Mako, jogging to catch up to them.

Morrison shook his head as they moved on, Reyes the final one left behind. “You’re actually molding them into something resembling a team, that’s impressive. But a victory over me in a training exercise won’t guarantee victory against the Germans, you’d do well to remember that.”

“Of course it doesn’t. The fact that we’ll be able to shoot back does.” Reyes clapped his hand on his shoulder, leaving him alone while the rest of his soldiers collected the wounded and dragged them off to the infirmary.

Morrison walked back to his office slowly, thinking over the events of the last week and considering the possibilities. They had shown considerable progress, to a degree that was truly impressive, but what he said still stood. The Germans wouldn’t show any hesitation, there wouldn’t be any concessions made, if they saw any of these soldiers they were going to shoot to kill, end of story.

“They’re good,” He said to himself, opening his office door and walking to his desk. “But they’re not invincible.”

He sighed, wanting a drink now more than ever. He’d wanted one ever since they’d first arrived, but now that the reality had set in that he was going to be sending a group of people that in an ideal world would have been dishonorably discharged at the least out into the field… well, that was something that he was still trying to wrap his head around.

He opened his desk drawer, smiling fondly at the bottle of whiskey laying in the middle. Picking it up, he pulled it out and toward him, frowning at the slight resistance he felt when he raised it up. Seeing the string looped around the neck of the bottle and seeing how it trailed back into the drawer, he had a split second to realize what had happened before he was thrown onto his back.

The back of the desk exploded, the legs collapsing out from under it and sending his belongings crashing to the ground. The bottle shattered, the glass cutting against his fingers but not deep enough to do any real damage. In fact, aside from the desk being destroyed and his chair slipping out from under him, it didn’t have that much power at all, which made it abundantly clear that this was meant purely as a prank.

A prank done by the only three people that he hadn’t captured that day.

Laying flat on his back, whiskey soaking into his clothes and burning the cuts in his hands, he couldn’t help but smile at the audacity that they’d shown with their little act. But more than that, the fact that three of them had managed to sneak out of an occupied forest, into a guarded military outpost, into the Major’s office and prepare a bomb while still arriving in time to capture said Major? That only showed one thing to him.

“Son of a bitch,” He said, “They’re ready.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're coming up on the end of training! Looks like everyone is finally coming together as a team, but what does this mean for their chances of survival?
> 
> As always I appreciate every hit, kudos and comment, I hope to see many more! This is a story that has some life in it yet, believe me!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dedicated to everyone who has given kudos and commented, and that lovely anon who left me love mail on my Tumblr <3

“Well, seemingly against all odds, you’ve graduated from the accelerated training program we had set up for you. If you don’t see that as something to be proud of, well, just be proud of the fact that you proved me wrong.” Morrison paced in front of them, arms behind his back and his steps rhythmically in time. If he was happy about being proven wrong he wasn’t showing it.

“So that’s it?” Reyes asked, “A few weeks of jumping jacks and target practice and now we’re off to kill some Nazis?”

“This war isn’t waiting around for us Lieutenant, we need to get you out there and doing what you so enjoy doing.” He looked at each member of the group one by one, saying, “You will report to the airfield at 18:00 hours tomorrow evening, you’ll be dropped deep behind enemy lines as close as we can get you to Hamburg.”

“And what then? Murder and mayhem until the war ends?” Hana asked, giggling as Lúcio and Jamison elbowed her sides.

“In so many words, yes. You go through the countryside, sticking a knife into the heart of the Nazi regime wherever you go until you reach your objective. Once you take down that fortress and kill everything that breathes inside, you will contact us on an enemy radio. Failing that, you’ll walk yourselves back to our lines.”

Olivia laughed, looking around at everyone else. “Chin up guys! Maybe this fortress’ll have some cars for us to use after we’ve finished our suicide mission!”

They each stood, shaking their heads and preparing themselves for whatever last minute training exercise they had cooked up for them when Morrison cleared his throat. “We’ll give you another refresher before you fly out tomorrow, but for tonight you have the rest of the time to yourselves. Spend it however you wish.” He started walking away, turning on his heel and addressing Hana, Lúcio and Jamison directly. “Stay out of my office.”

They laughed as he left, Jamison jumping in the air and turning back to the group. “Alright mates! Party time!”

 

“How the fuck is this a party?” Hana kicked at Lena’s feet, head hanging off her bunk. “The two Australians leave to go wherever it is they go together, the traitor does the same thing, and here we are just sitting on our bunks like we usually do!”

“Maybe they’re looking for some gifts to give us?” Lena shrugged, keeping her fingers still while Amelie worked on them. “Where’d you even find nail polish luv?”

“Olivia found it for me, I didn’t think to ask where from.” She held up one of the bottles and shook it gently. “She even found a rather nice shade of red for you, though I’m more fond of the black.”

Hana perked her head up. “...Do you have any pinks?”

On the other side of the room, Lúcio was sat speaking to Reinhardt, the larger man with a hand on his shoulder. “I didn’t sign up for something like  _ this _ you know, I just wanted to be able to take care of my family,” Lúcio sighed, “I didn’t want to… be thrown in some criminal task force.”

Reinhardt nodded in sympathy. “War is a terrible thing, though it can sometimes manifest good fortune in strange ways. You have an opportunity to help the world with this mission, though it has come at a great personal cost.”

“You really believe that? That whole ‘Silver Lining’ crap?”

He nodded. “I do, though in a strange way. This war has given me a chance to protect people, to find evil where it threatens them and drive it out. But if this war was over they wouldn’t need to be protected, so I will jump at any chance I have to make that happen.”

“I came here to protect people.” They turned their heads, Fareeha and Angela approaching them slowly. “I read the newspapers, saw all the innocent people in danger and thought, ‘Wow, how can I just stand by and let that happen?’”

Fareeha took her seat next to Lúcio, Angela sitting next to her. “I get here and everyone in my unit is concerned with who they’re going to kill next, not who they’re going to save. I didn’t make many friends when I kept dragging civilians out of the way, and I made even less when I dragged a group of soldiers off with me to get even more out of a town we were going to shell.”

“What happened?” Angela asked, her eyes looking like they had some life in them once more.

“Well they shelled the village while we were still there, killed the Lieutenant that I’d dragged along with me, then Germans executed the rest of my team and all the civilians while I was passed out.” Fareeha sniffed, clenching her fist. “When I got back they wrote me up for desertion… and here I am.”

“Wow that…” Lúcio grimaced. “That  _ sucks _ .”

“Yeah well, that’s war isn’t it?” Fareeha sat back, popping her lips and staring up at the ceiling. No one said anything for a minute, before Angela leaned into her side.

“I killed a Major.”

The others looked up in shock, Lúcio’s mouth dropping open. “You killed a  _ Major? _ How did you not just get shot right away?”

“No one liked him, I think that worked in my favor. The unit I was attached to kept losing men in attacks that didn’t mean anything, he kept calling in artillery on villages that turned out not to have any Germans in them. He liked to watch the battles from a hilltop.” She shrugged. “One day he got hit in the shoulder by a sniper and they wanted me to work on him.”

“What did you do?”

“I overdosed him on morphine and watched him die. After that I turned myself in and faced the consequences.”

Lúcio nodded slowly, eyebrows drawn together. “Don’t medics have like… a thing against doing that sort of thing?”

“Against what? Killing?” He nodded. “This is a war, I don’t carry a gun just because I look nice with it. It’s my job to make sure that as few people die on my watch as possible, and if I can save twenty lives by taking one then that’s the right choice to make.”

Fareeha nodded. “If the Germans don’t get us then the brass will. I came here to help people, they just wanted to pick up a few medals, the more people like that we get out of the way means more innocent people that we can actually protect.”

“I’m all for that.” Lúcio and Reinhardt nodded. “Hell, I’d rather not be here at all but I may as well try and help people while I can right?”

Reinhardt clapped him on the back, grinning widely. “Now you are talking like a warrior!”

“I don’t wanna be a warrior, I want to survive!”

“Ah but being a warrior is so much more fun!”

Watching over them, Reyes chuckled to himself, “Good to see that they’re starting to get along. I still think it’s a mistake but hey, you can’t help it sometimes can you?”

Akande grunted, finishing up his set of pushups. “Bonds can make for a stronger will, but they can also be a weakness. We will have to see that they do not become weak.”

“Is that what you taught your boys? While you were doing war crimes on Peleliu?”

“I taught them that they need to be strong, that it was their only hope of survival.” He smiled. “Breaking an enemy’s will is the key to an early victory, everything we did ensured that.”

Reyes hummed in thought, “Can’t say I disagree with you, and that  _ is _ the point of this whole mission. Just make sure that you keep it contained to the soldiers, I don’t want to have to step over any civilians if we can help it.”

“Is that a request Lieutenant? Or an order?” Akande stood, tilting his head curiously. “Because I recall that the Major put me in charge. Is that going to be a problem?”

“So long as you make good calls and keep everyone alive you can have the unit. If I find your leadership… unsatisfactory, you’ll know.” Reyes pushed past him, heading towards the door. “Now where  _ are _ those three degenerates?”

As if on cue the front door kicked inwards, an exclamation of triumph heralding the arrival of their three AWOL teammates. “Alright mates who’s ready to get a load on? Oi Oxxy, catch!”

Lena barely got her hands up in time to catch the bottle that was thrown at her, the strong smell of moonshine almost making her eyes water. “Bloody hell Jamie what have you gone and done now?”

He puffed his chest out proudly, slapping Mako’s stomach. “Me ‘n the big guy’ve been making this stuff for months, you’d be surprised what you can make with the stuff ya got sitting around in tanks!”

She looked at the bottle cautiously before shrugging and lifting the bottle to her lips. “Ack!” She pitched forward, throat burning and coughing harshly while just managing to stop the bottle spilling everywhere. “Jesus Jamie you could bloody well strip paint with this!”

“It does!”

Hana rolled her eyes, taking the bottle while Amelie rubbed Lena’s back. “What a wimp, where I grew up we-  _ Shi-bal! _ ” She almost spat the alcohol out, not quite prepared for the burn of it. Whatever it was, it was not what they would call moonshine. “What is this? Did you just bottle the antifreeze?”

“Nope! Old Fawkes family recipe!” Jamison fished around in his bag, pulling out a fancy labeled bottle and tossing it in the air a few times. “Oi LT!” Akande turned around, Jamison waved his hand dismissively. “Nah not you, the other one!”

Reyes raised his eyebrow. “Is that what I think it is?”

“Too right! Snagged it from the Major’s office when we were riggin’ his desk. Catch!”

Reyes caught the bottle easily, popping the cork and lifting the bottle, taking a few generous gulps before sighing in satisfaction. “Ah, just like mama used to make…”

“Oh you think that’s impressive?” Olivia walked forward confidently, hand in her own bag and a smirk on her face. “How about this?”

Reyes’ eyes widened when she pulled out the bottle of Jalisco Tequila. “Is that… how did you manage to get Tequila in  _ Germany? _ ”

She laughed, “I’m an OSS Agent boss, it’s my job to find things where they shouldn’t be found.”

“Is that so?” Amelie asked, arms crossed. “How good are you at doing that?”

Olivia tossed her another bottle. “Betcha a bottle of French Cognac that I can find anything you want.”

Amelie looked down at the bottle, impressed being a light word to describe her feelings. “I’m suddenly very glad to be here.”

“Well mates, tomorrow we jump into the bloody belly of the beast!” Jamison jumped up onto the top bunk. “Fighting for bloody king and country and all that! But for tonight whaddaya say we get a little rowdy?”

Reyes passed the bottle across to Akande, pointing to the smaller group next to them. “I don’t have any problems with that, you?”

Akande chuckled, taking a swig of the Whiskey before passing it to Reinhardt. “None here.”

“Well then,” Reyes said, pulling the cork on the Tequila bottle with his teeth and spitting it across the room. “Permission granted to cut loose for a night.”

 

“You know I been meanin’ to ask you something Gabe,” Lena slurred, the bottle of what they were starting to suspect actually _ was _ antifreeze half-empty in her hand. “You’re a Marine right?”

Reyes nodded, thumping his fist against his chest. “ _ Semper Fidelis _ little one, why’s that?”

“Well I thought the Marines were only in the Pacific.” She pointed her finger at him, spilling some of her drink on the floor. “So what were you doing all the way out here?”

He chuckled, “Nice catch, you’re the first one to ask. After I did my time in the beaches and in the jungles some genius decided that I could be better used getting other squads in line, squaring up the troops, improving the performance of the officers, all that bullshit.” He smirked, taking another swig of his Tequila. “Bet they didn’t think my way of improving the officers performance was by planting a .45 in their brainpan.”

“Is that why you signed up? To go over there?”

“Over to the Pacific? Shit no, I just didn’t know we weren’t heading over to Germany. I have a bone to pick with the Nazis, not the Japanese, far as I’m concerned this was the best thing to ever happen to me.”

“Well Sir...” Lena saluted, spilling some of the alcohol down the side of her face. “I gotta say that I’m glad you’re here. Now come on, take a swig of this.”

Reyes leaned further back in his chair, batting her hand away with his. “You keep that shit away from me, I swear to god I can feel my hair falling out just smelling that thing!”

“Aw come on mate…” Reyes looked up, Jamison leaning over him with a smirk and a fresh bottle in his hand. “What doesn’t kill ya and all that…”

 

“So what’s going on with you and the little speedster huh?” Olivia wiggled her eyebrows, giggling at Amelie’s grunt of frustration. “You lookin’ to ‘Rule Britannia’ for a night or two?”

“I’m looking for you to be quiet for a night or two, now hold still.” She shakily applied the nail polish to Olivia’s nails, tongue poking through her lips and her eyes narrowed to stop her vision swimming. Even after half a bottle of Cognac her focus was absolute, not a single imperfection to be found on any of the nails. “It’s your job to read people, do you think that I’m joking?”

“I think that what you two need is a good way to break the tension, I hear that there might be a spot out near the back where no one goes. Defence wise it’s a complete hole in the system, but tonight…” Olivia grinned. “Well, I don’t wanna put ideas in your head.”

“Good, because I’m getting some in regards of what I do to you.” She shoved her bottle in Olivia’s hand, gesturing impatiently. “Now shut up and drink.”

 

“Luci… Lúcio… Lúcioh my god!” Hana giggled, kicking against his legs from where they were laying down. “You’ve got a fun name to say.”

“And you have a pretty bad tolerance.” He chuckled, swaying when he tried to sit up. “Not that I’m doin’ much better, god _ damn _ what is in that stuff?”

“Ethanol mostly, a few drops of nitroglycerine…”

“Say  _ what? _ ” Lúcio made to leap up in horror, but he didn’t get far before he collapsed back on the bed. “We’re drinking explosives?”

“Relaaaaaax a few drops won’t kill you. It’ll just… make you feel weird.” She slid up to his side, leaning her head on his shoulder. “Do you feel weird?”

He looked away from her. “I feel… yeah, I feel a little weird.”

“Because of the explosives in your stomach? Or… because of something else?”

Lúcio cleared his throat, “You know I’m not going to say… Mako? What are you doing here?”

Mako stood above them, holding a kicking Jamison in his hand. “Too rowdy. Your problem now.”

They didn’t have time to work out what he meant before he dropped Jamison unceremoniously across their stomachs, the drunken Australian curling into a ball around them. “Bloody big bastard won’t let me have any fun with the LT!” He squirmed around until he was on his back, looking up at them upside down. “Heya mates, hope I’m not interruptin’ anything.”

“No, I was just telling Luci all about what you put in your alcohol.”

His face lit up, flipping onto his stomach and laying between them. “That’s brilliant mate! So what’d you think of the taste?”

Lúcio shied away, Jamison’s face only a few inches away from his own. “I uh… it tasted like batteries?”

“Tops! I’ve been workin’ on making it taste better, looks like it’s goin’ well!” He sighed and let his face fall into the bed. “So what’re you two doin’ then?”

“Um…” Hana looked at Lúcio. “Just relaxing. You wanna relax too?”

“Yeah mate…” He groaned, stretching himself out and pushing in between them, pulling their arms across him. “That sounds like a good time…”

Hana and Lúcio looked at each other in confusion, but they couldn’t think of much else to do. With a shrug of their shoulders and a laugh, they lay back down with him, letting their bodies go limp and enjoying the moment.

Jamison giggled to himself, “Beautiful.”

 

The rest of the unit was enjoying their time to themselves, Reinhardt and Mako engaged in a stalemate in their arm wrestling contest, Akande and Reyes cheering on each side and eager to win the prize of the last of the Glenfiddich Scotch that they had put on the line.

Fareeha was smiling widely, telling Angela stories from the field and enjoying the laughter she was receiving in response. Olivia was hovering over their shoulders, constantly pouring them drinks and interjecting one of her own stories once in awhile, including an anecdote about stolen art and a triple agent that had them almost on the floor with tears in their eyes.

And Lena and Amelie? Well… to say that they were drunk by this point was very much an understatement.

“C’mon luv, you can tell me. What’s the thing you look for in someone?” Lena waved her hands around, collapsing backwards into Amelie’s lap. “Sex-wise I mean.”

Amelie giggled, pushing the empty bottle off the bunk and poking at Lena’s forehead. “Someone who can stay standing for one, that always helps.”

“I can stay standing!” Lena shot up, immediately regretting her decision as she almost pitched forward. “Oh bloody hell, shouldn’t’ve done that.”

Amelie stood up far more gracefully, holding Lena steadily while she tried to stop her head from swimming. “You truly are incorrigible, aren’t you?”

“Sure am luv, whatever that means.” She turned around, trying to look as sultry as possible. “‘Sides, not like we’d have to be standing that long…”

“Oh really? You have such little confidence in lasting that long?”

“I…” Lena frowned, connecting the words in her mind. “Come to think of it that didn’t sound like the biggest selling point did it?”

“Not at all, but I think I can forgive that one small slip.” Amelie looked down at the little amount of alcohol that Lena still had in her bottle, snatching it out of her hands and draining it to the last drop. “To hell with it, just for one night.”

Olivia looked over at them, grin wide and her hands forming what signs she could think of to give them directions. When that failed she resorted to just yelling, “Around the back of the Barracks! Should be the perfect spot for an illicit rendezvous!”

The rest of the group turned and yelled their drunken approval, drinks being raised and spilling across the floor. Lena grinned, whooping at the top of her lungs while a half-mortified Amelie dragged her out the front door.

From there the rest of the night went by in a drunken haze, Mako and Akande losing their shirts somewhere along the way and almost bringing a wall down in their impromptu wrestling match. When he tossed Akande across the room and into the laps of Fareeha and Angela they expected mortification, and were pleasantly surprised when the two women leapt to their feet and onto Mako’s back, teaming up with a newly risen Akande to bring the giant Australian down to the ground.

Akande and Reyes decided it was only fair that they got the rest of the scotch.

 

Everyone woke up differently the next morning. Hana, Lúcio and Jamison woke up in a twisted heap of arms and legs, Angela had wrapped her arms around Fareeha’s waist sometime in the middle of the night. Reinhardt had somehow fallen asleep sitting up while Olivia curled around his neck like a cat, Akande, Reyes and Mako had passed out against each others shoulders with their hands still wrapped around bottles of Jamison’s alcohol which had managed to start burning a hole in the floorboards.

Amelie and Lena woke up huddled together in the dirt with no pants, promptly agreeing not to discuss this anytime soon.

There was one constant between them all though, and that was that just opening their eyes had them wishing that they had spent the morning being shelled by German artillery rather than with some of the worst hangovers they’d had in their lives. Jamison and Mako looked to be handling things the best, having had previous experience with the glorified paint stripper that they called an alcohol, but even they were finding it hard to stand.

“Shit,” Reyes groaned, pushing Akande off of him. “And we’re supposed to invade Germany today?”

Mako chuckled, giant back rising and falling shakily. “Too much nitro. Shoot us and we’ll explode.” He rose to his feet, just having time to run over to the window and pull his mask off before he vomited out onto the grass. “Too much drinking. Not fun anymore.”

Olivia looked up and laughed as Lena and Amelie made their appearance again, pushing the door open slowly and keeping their eyes closed against the harsh light. “ _ Oye _ it’s the two love birds! Did you enjoy-” She held her hands over her temples, groaning in pain to herself. “ _ Hijo de puta _ …  _ pinche mierda _ my head…”

“Guys,” Hana said, pushing the other two off of her and leaning forward. “I don’t know if we’re up to flying into hostile territory tonight.”

“Too bad,” Akande said, “We have… five hours before we have to report to the airfield, so drink as much water as you can and try and push through it.” He stumbled over to the door in search of water. “Good god my head…”

 

“This has to be the most disgraceful display of military discipline that I’ve ever seen in my entire career.” Morrison shook his head, scowling at the grimaces of pain on each of their faces as they fiddled with the straps of their helmets. “Every one of you, every single one of you is in absolutely no state to be undertaking a mission, and if this was any other circumstance I would call this off entirely.”

Reyes laughed, groaning as the movement shook his brain. “I’m sensing a ‘but’ in this sentence.”

“But I’m not calling this off, we’ve finally managed to push further into the heartland, we need you behind those lines now more than ever. So you will be getting on this plane and jumping out of it even if you vomit up every drop of food and drink that you’ve consumed in the last few days.”

He walked along, closing his eyes and sighing once he reached Olivia. “Agent Colomar… is that my last bottle of Whiskey falling out of your pack?”

“Oh what, this?” She pulled out the empty bottle, tossing it off to the side and into the line of guards standing watch. “Nope, don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Whatever.” He stepped back so everyone could see and hear him. “We are sending you all in standard US Army fatigues, if you so decide in the field that you prefer the look of something else by all means change, just make sure you can be recognized by our forces at the end of the mission. The same goes for your weapons, eventually you will run out of ammunition which is why we gave you a primer in German equipment.”

“What are the rules out there Sir?” Fareeha asked, “This is hardly a routine mission.”

“True enough. Cause maximum casualties, take no prisoners. If you think something is a legitimate target you have absolute permission to destroy it, whether it be an ammo dump or a school.” He squared his shoulders. “Whatever you think will impact the Nazis morale the most, you will kill.”

Lena bristled. “Sounds like a death squad Sir.”

“If you have a hard time moralizing it I suggest you think about what your targets will do if you let them live. I’m sure a number of you have seen the way they treat anyone who shows a hint of resistance.” He looked around at the expressions of agreement, and even Lena had to admit that he had a point. “Good, if you find yourself wavering in your dedication to the objective, just think of the lives you will prevent being lost.”

He walked up to Reyes, sniffing at the alcohol still soaking through in his sweat. “What about you Lieutenant, do you have any problems with the mission?”

He scoffed, “You’ve seen I have no problems shooting people on my own side, why would I have a problem shooting a Nazi?”

Morrison nodded, still scowling but satisfied with the answer. He looked at Mako, fiddling with the knob on his flamethrower and chuckling to himself. “You’re going to run out of fuel for that very fast, I suggest you pick something up to use as a backup.”

“Already got one.” He gestured to the trench gun hanging at his hip, giving a thumbs up. “No one gets near enough for it to matter.”

“Well… good.” Morrison turned holding his hand up and gesturing for the pilot to start up the engines. “Alright you’re all good to go. Get on that plane and make the Germans regret ever being born. Anyone who makes it back, regardless of number and severity, will be completely absolved of their crimes. Keep that in mind as dedication if basic humanity doesn’t have enough of a hold.”

One by one, they filed onto the plane, the Major standing by the door and slapping each of them on the shoulder as they passed by. They took their seats, parachutes on their backs and pulses racing as the reality set in that they were finally embarking on a mission that would likely end in their deaths.

Reyes took a deep breath, letting his head fall back against the cold metal of the plane before he laughed to himself, “Well shit guys…” He grinned. “Let’s go fight a war!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are, training's over! Let's go to war!  
> People are getting close, some closer than others, but what does that mean for future chapters? You'll just have to read and find out!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warnings in the end notes

By the time they passed over the border night had well and truly fallen, the plane shuddering with countless bouts of turbulence. Anti-aircraft fire hadn't started yet but they all knew it was only a matter of time, even to those that hadn't set foot on a plane before.

“Alright here's the plan,” Reyes said, shouting to be heard over the roar of the engines. “Soon as that light goes off we jump out, the rendezvous is an abandoned mill off the side of a nearby river. The ride is going to get very rough, very fast, so we need to move fast, got it?”

They each nodded, heads pounding with hangovers and anxiety in equal measure. Lúcio looked fit to throw up, but much to her surprise Lena felt fine, as though the plane ride would lull her off to sleep in no time.

“What do we do if we get separated?” She asked, “Sounds like that's a very real risk yeah?”

Akande nodded in agreement. “With the possibility for a wide dispersal, if you find yourself separated from the main group head north. When you find a village or something that resembles a landmark make yourself hidden and wait for the rest of us.”

“And if the rest of you never come that way?”

Sombra snorted, “Then you just got a pretty good excuse to sit out the rest of the war in peace.”

The plane shuddered, the sole remaining guard at the end of the plane turning green. Jamison yelled over at him, “Why the hell are you here anyway mate? Ain’t you supposed to be guarding the Major or whatever?”

“Last shift…” He doubled over, barely keeping his dinner in his stomach. “Make sure you actually get off the plane and don’t steal it.”

Fareeha rolled her eyes, ejecting the magazine in her Carbine and tapping it against her helmet. “Not only do they think we’re traitors, they think that we’re cowards as well.”

“Now see, I wouldn’t have thought of that myself,” Lúcio said, “I’ve spent the last few hours trying to make peace with all of this, the idea of stealing the plane just wouldn’t come to me.”

“Speak for yourself,” Mako chuckled, “Want to take this plane and ram it in Morrison’s ass.”

Jamison giggled, “Too right!”

The plane shook violently, anti-air bursting around them and the pilots maneuvering to avoid it as best they could. The guard was clutching his weapon in a white-knuckled grip, rocking back and forth in panic and looking up at them with an expression of the most terror any of them had ever seen.

“Oh Christ what am I doing here? I should have just… I should have said no I should have just gotten thrown in the brig…”

“Hey. Hey!” Reyes yelled over at him, the guard looked up at him shakily. “You stow that shit right now ok? I don’t need your shit on top of everything else!”

Hana tossed him a canteen, his hands barely catching it as he dropped his gun. “Drink that. Shut up.”

“Alright, looks like they know we’re here.” Reyes looked towards the cockpit. “Don’t know how long they’re going to be able to keep us in the air, so we’re going to have to drop soon. We just ride this as far as we can.”

Lena turned to Amelie next to her, the sniper calmly checking her weapon and ensuring everything was strapped in place. “Are you alright _cherie?_ No jitters?”

“None except worrying about getting some flak up my arse. You?”

“ _Non,_ I am focused.” She smiled to herself, settling back and waiting. “The time has finally come. It’s _very_ exciting.”

“Heh, yeah.” Lena looked around the plane, each of the members of their group either calm or slowly getting there in contrast to their guard. “I guess it is.”

The light next to the door turned on, red light flooding the interior and reflecting off their eyes. “Everyone up!”

They all stood without a seconds pause, turning to the front of the plane and waiting for their orders. Reyes stood at the front, back to the open door and inspecting them.

“Parachutes clear?”

“Yes Sir!”

“Alright...” He trailed off, looking at the back of the plane towards where the guard was fumbling to stand up. “Are you coming with us or are you staying here?”

The soldier stopped, looking back at him and standing slowly. “I’m-”

The plane erupted with a ferocious tearing sound, the side of the plane ripping open and the soldier’s body disappearing from the waist up. Hana screamed as a stray bit of metal scored across her back, what had once been part of the guard’s chest spraying across the last in the line.

“Song! Are you alright?” Reyes made to march down before she raised her hand, nodding and swearing profusely.

“I’m fine! We can work on that later, let’s just get the fuck out of here!”

Another round hit the plane, shaking all of them to their feet and tilting the plane dangerously to the left for a second. As soon as he got his feet underneath him again Reyes looked at the light, turning and throwing the door to the cockpit open and screaming, “We need to get out of here now, you hear me?”

“We’re almost at the drop off point!” The pilot answered, his co-pilot focused on trying to patch up the crater that his chest had turned into from the last hit. Coughing up a mouthful of blood and slumping forward, his hands dropped to his sides and dropped the bandages to the floor.

“Keith?” The pilot pushed his shoulder, shaking him violently before slamming his fist against the console. “Fuck! Look just hang in there alright? We’re almost-”

The next round went straight through the cockpit but thankfully exploded outside, passing through the pilot’s head and taking everything from the jaw up with it. Reyes fell backwards in shock, kicking the door closed with his foot and shooting back up, turning and yelling to the rest of the group. “Alright fuck this, we’re jumping now! All of you go go go!”

Leading the line Akande jumped first, his parachute trailing out behind him before the air caught it, his body jolting and floating slowly down to the ground amid continuing flak fire. One by one they jumped out, parachutes catching and carrying them to relative safety. Lena couldn’t see past Mako, but she could tell that their time was coming up very soon, she just didn’t know if-

“Down!” Mako turned, giant arm sweeping over herself and Amelie and shoving them down to the ground, the canopy of the plane tearing open right next to them and air rushing in.

“Fuck me!” Lena laughed, glancing up at Mako. “Thanks big guy!”

“Don’t mention it,” He answered, stepping up to the door. “Just be safe.”

After he jumped it was Lena’s turn, one last look at Amelie all she allowed herself before she too leapt out, eyes closed for the first few seconds before her parachute jolted her entire body, teeth crashing against each other and her heart feeling like it had dropped into her stomach. Looking up at the plane she saw a few more parachutes opening, the plane lasting a few more hundred yards before a flak round hit the fuel lines, the wing exploding and spiralling downwards.

She just hoped that everyone had made it out.

They had dropped low, the ground coming up at her fast as she tucked her legs into herself and prepared for landing. It was a hard landing, her body rolling along the ground roughly as the wind caught her parachute and started dragging her along through the logs and rocks. Drawing her knife and cutting the lines, she allowed herself a moment to breath as the canopy separated and draped itself across a nearby tree.

She looked around herself, noting with some amazement that they had dropped right into the middle of a forest. Considering the amount of trees around her it was a wonder she hadn’t snapped her neck.

But now wasn’t the time to stand around, drawing her weapon and collecting the now useless parachute and stuffing it best as she could into her pack. No sense in tipping off any stray patrols that soldiers had dropped into their territory. Walking forward she craned her head upwards, seeing one of the parachutes coming down to her south, they had said to go north but there was no point in ignoring a nearby soldier.

“Goddammit!” She recognized the voice as Hana’s, pained vitriol spilling freely from her lips and echoing through the trees. She looked up as Lena approached, blood staining her uniform and running down her arm. “I’m fine, it looks worse than it is,” She hissed as she stood up. “Hurts like a bitch though.”

“Alright come on,” Lena said, lifting her carefully to her feet and pulling her arm over her shoulder. “Don’t be proud let me help you.”

“You sure?” Hana chuckled, “Not sure I want your fingers all over me after where they were last night.”

“Oh please, don’t deny that you’re curious,” Lena laughed, the two of them working themselves slowly north. “Or maybe you’ve more than got your hands full already?”

Hana blushed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Also fuck you.”

“Yeah sure, soon as we find Jamie and Luci I’m gonna be asking a few questions…”

“Questions about what?” They turned quickly, Lena’s Thompson held in one hand while Hana drew her sidearm, both of them aiming into the forest.

“It’s Angela,” The surprise guest announced, stepping forward with her arms raised. “It’s a good thing this isn’t a stealth mission, and that I’m Swiss, otherwise that would have ended much differently.”

Lena sighed in relief, lowering her weapon and nodding her head. “Hiya Angie, fancy meeting you out here?”

“Have you seen anyone else?” Hana asked, “Anyone else drop nearby or...?”

“Not from what I’ve seen, but we all jumped pretty closely after each other. Amelie and Lúcio at least made it to the ground from what I saw, but I don’t know where.” She hummed, stepping closer and inspecting the wound in Hana’s back. “We’re going to need to do something about that soon, are you ok to move?”

“Not much choice otherwise right doc?” Hana chuckled through her teeth, “Let’s just find the others already, we can sort me out later.”

Together, the three of them marched further north, keeping their eyes open in all directions for one of their friends. They were about to move along to the next patch of forest before they heard a clicking, the three of them freezing in place and reaching for their weapons. The rhythmic clicker going another three times before stopping.

“Flash!” Hana yelled, eyebrow raising at the chuckle she received in response.

“Thunder,” Amelie purred as she stepped out of the brush, rifle held at her side and her parachute cleaned away. “Though that doesn’t work when we have actual Germans on our team.”

“I agree,” Angela said, “I would have been shot for answering.”

“Right, yeah…” Hana laughed, “Forgot about that.”

“Well I have some good news for you,” Amelie said, whistling towards the east. “You won’t have to go far to find your friend.”

Lúcio jogged out of the brush, hands on his knees as he took them in. “Oh thank god all you guys are alright. After the plane went up it was…” He walked forward, wincing at the wound across Hana’s back and placing his hand lightly on her shoulder. “I’m glad you’re alright.”

Hana blushed, looking down and saying, “You too…”

“Well, that’s five of us,” Lena said, “Now we just need to find the other seven. I just hope they’re all in one piece…”

 

They didn’t meet anyone else on their next trek, and they were fairly certain they were the furthest south out of everyone. Passing by the first landmark they could see, a bombed out barn, they were satisfied and annoyed to see that no one was waiting for them there. Pausing to rest on a nearby rock, Angela seized the opportunity to be able to look over Hana’s wound.

“This does look worse than it actually is, but you still have some bleeding.” She poured a small amount of sulfa powder against the wound, Hana hissing as it worked its way under her torn skin. “The most I can do for you right now is to wrap it up as best I can.”

“Alright, just do it. And keep that fucking powder to yourself now!”

Angela chuckled, “No promises.”

Lena looked up at the stars, Thompson draped across her legs as Amelie and herself sat back against the rock. “Hell of a drop huh luv?”

“Indeed,” She said, “I’ve never done that before.”

“I did it once before, nowhere near as bad as that shite we just went through.” She popped her lips, groaning to herself, “Nobody fuckin’ splattered all over me the last time I jumped out of a plane.”

“Yes. I could have used less of that.” Amelie grimaced as she scraped _something_ off her uniform. “Hopefully in the future we-” She stopped, her head shooting up and looking from side to side. “Did you hear that?”

“Hear what?” Lena scooted herself up, the other three stopping what they were doing and listening out as well.

“Medic! Fuckin’ _medic!_ ”

“It’s coming from the west,” Amelie said, rising to her feet and hauling Lena up. “Let’s go!”

They ran through the trees, Lúcio and Lena leading the line as they got closer to the shouts. “Shit,” Lúcio said, “I think it’s Jamie!”

They burst through the trees, Jamison turning and aiming his trench gun at them. “Who the fuck is it?”

“Woah hey Jamie!” Lúcio threw his hands up. “It’s us man, come on put the gun down!”

“Lúcio?” He paused, his eyes widening while he threw the gun down. “I- fuck I’m sorry mate I thought… I thought you might’ve been…”

“Hey it’s alright…” He walked forward slowly, trailing off when he looked up. “Oh no…”

“What?” Hana said, the rest of them turning their gaze upwards and seeing why he had been screaming. She threw a hand over her mouth in shock, wanting to tear her eyes away but not able to.

Mako hung limply from the branch of the tree, his parachute impaled on the branches and holding him in place. He hadn’t been hit by anti-air, hadn’t been executed by passing soldiers, he would have looked completely healthy if his neck hadn’t been hanging at an unnatural angle and his body was swaying in the breeze.

Angela sighed, running a hand down her face while she looked him over. “The sudden stop snapped his neck, he likely didn’t even know it had happened.”

Hana and Lúcio ran to Jamison’s side, wrapping their arms as best they could around him and sitting down next to him.

“He… he was my best mate…” He said flatly, his voice devoid of any of the life that he was known for. “What… why’d this happen?”

“Fuck…” Lena muttered to herself, stepping away and looking into the blackness of the forest. “We barely made it into the fucking country and one of us is already gone.”

“They sent us out here to die,” Amelie said, walking up to her side. “I think we should survive to let them know how much we don’t care for that.”

Lena nodded, looking back and shaking her head as Jamison burst into tears. “I don’t want to see any of this ever again, we need to keep everyone safe. From everything.”

“You can’t save everyone Lena..”

“No...” She nodded. “But I can at least try.”

There they stood, six grieving soldiers gathered around their fallen comrade. And somewhere in their grief, underneath all the fear and all the anger, they knew that he wasn’t going to be the last loss they suffered.

They just hoped they could prepare themselves for the next one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning: Graphic descriptions of violence, major character death
> 
> Well there we go, the first of our group is gone. It wasn't easy to write them out, I really love their character. I just hope it hasn't scared you off of reading, I love every one of you who has stuck around this long.
> 
> Hope to see you next time, let me know what you thought <3


	7. Chapter 7

The forest was quiet, the occasional pop of a rifle or the dull thump of artillery punching through the air and rattling the birds. Reyes tightened his hold around his shotgun, sitting back against the tree and keeping his eyes closed and his ears open, listening out for any hint of German troops that he could find.

In the two hours since they’d landed, he hadn’t heard a single one. And aside from Akande and Fareeha, he hadn’t come across a single person in his entire squad.

“Where the fuck is everyone?” He asked, tapping his fingers along the shells on his bandolier. “They should all be here by now.”

“Not surprising,” Akande said, “We scattered all over the forest, the plane was shifting and throwing us in whatever direction it saw fit. They could be two hundred yards or five miles away from us.”

Fareeha didn’t look away from where she was staring into the darkness, though she did lean around to speak. “Do you think we’ve lost anyone?”

“I don’t know,” He replied, “But with the way the drop went, I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“Fuck this.” Reyes stood up, stretching his shoulders out and making sure all his equipment was still attached. “We’re not going to do anything waiting around here, and we sure as shit can’t do a thing with just three of us and no medic. If they can’t come to us we’ll go to them.”

Fareeha nodded, standing up from her crouched position and walking over. “Which way should we start heading?”

“I was the first out, we were travelling to the east.” Akande nodded to himself after a moment of thought. “We’ll go southeast, even if we’ve been scattered across the forest they should be in that rough area. They might have been held up by something as well.”

“Wasn’t a German ambush, we would have heard way more gunfire if that was the case,” Reyes chuckled, “Probably some screams from Mako’s flamethrower, did you see him on the plane? He was _itching_ to get a chance to use it.”

“We’ve still got to see what those two are made of,” Akande said, “Victory cannot be won by a fluke.”

Fareeha laughed to herself, “You’re just saying that because you lost your fight with Mako.”

“And you’re only saying _that_ because you won it.”

Trekking slowly through the forest, bodies hunched and their eyes open for any hint of hostile personnel, they didn’t allow themselves to think about the possibility that they were perhaps the only ones left, though it threatened to creep into their minds every step of the way.

A snapped branch almost made Akande and Reyes fire into the bushes to their right, but a flurry of frustrated spanish told them that either they had found Sombra, or they had stumbled upon possibly _the_ most confused unit in all of the German infantry.

“Don’t fucking shoot me _pendejo,_ it’s me!” Sombra stepped out of the bushes, sheathing her knife and swinging her Thompson lazily by her hip. “About time I found more of you, thought maybe you all bit it before you hit the ground.”

Reyes grunted, “Not yet. You see anyone else?”

“Funny you should ask that,” She clicked her tongue, looking back towards the bush as Reinhardt pushed his way out. “Found him tangled up in a bush, looked like he was having a great time.”

“Parachutes and thick bush are not a good mix.” Reinhardt grinned, stepping forward and clapping each of them on the back. “My friends! It is good to see you in one piece, wasn’t sure we would all make it off the plane.”

“All of us made it off at least, can’t say the same about the crew though.”

“Ugh, tell me about it,” Sombra complained, “I’m still scraping shit out of my hair.”

Akande resumed walking, looking back and saying, “It looks like we’re on the right track, we should hopefully find the rest of them soon. We only have so many hours of night left to move.”

Reyes chuckled, “Always with the schedule, is this going to be a running thing Akande?”

“I’ll be more lenient when we have a roof over our heads and an idea of where we are. Until then we are two hours behind schedule in hostile territory just under where an American plane went down.” He shrugged, redying his shotgun as he pushed through the foliage. “Forgive my impatience.”

“Well, when you put it that way…” Reyes looked back at the rest of the group, flicking his head in the direction Akande was walking. “Come on, he’s an ass about it but he’s right. Time’s a-wastin’.”

 

Lena huffed as she finally dropped the shovel, dirt caking her hands and staining her fatigues when she dragged herself out of the hole they had spent so long digging. Lúcio and Jamison looked the same way, the latter having to deal with the fact that he had not only lost his best friend to bad luck, but also had to spend two hours digging his grave.

“Hey, come on mate,” Lena said, squeezing Jamison’s shoulder. “I know this is tough but…” She tried to think of something to say, some silver lining that they could find, some moral that they could grab hold of and think that maybe this happened for a reason. But there wasn’t any to be found, no lesson other than ‘Shit happens’.

So that was all she had to say. “I know this is tough. But.”

Jamison didn’t reply, shaking his head to himself and leaning down to Mako’s body, his mask still on and his fatigues as tidy as they could get them. Busying himself stripping the body of it’s ammunition and canteen, he tried to let himself grow numb to everything, to be able to see this in some way that wasn’t a tragedy.

It worked, right up until it was time to put him in the hole.

“Jesus fuckin’ Christ,” He said, blinking tears away as he took Mako’s legs and dragged him with Lúcio’s help to the side of the grave. “Forgot how fuckin’ heavy you were mate…”

“Hey man, you ok?” Lúcio stood still, waiting for any sign that Jamison might need a hand or a shoulder to cry on. Whatever he could give him, as far as he was concerned Jamison would have it.

“Yeah mate, yeah… just…” He looked into the trees, putting a shaky hand to his mouth and stepping away from the hole. “Can you put him in for me? I… I don’t think I…”

“Hey, it’s alright.” Lúcio nodded, running a hand along his back and squeezing his neck. “It’s alright, just go have a moment to yourself, we’ll be right here.”

Jamison nodded his thanks, picking up his pistol and his knife before stepping into the bushes, trying to find a tree where he could try and muffle his cries.

“Lena, you wanna help me with this?” Lúcio took Mako’s arms, waiting until Lena had a good hold on his legs before they started moving, wanting to drop him in slowly but knowing with his weight that wasn’t going to be possible.

When they were forced to drop him when he was halfway over the gap they could at least be happy that he landed face up.

Lena looked down into the hole, fingers tapping around the handle of her shovel as she embedded it in the loose dirt. “Does anyone want to… say something or… anything like that?”

“What is there to say?” Hana asked, wincing while Angela tightened her bandages. “We liked him, but we didn’t know him. We’ll miss him, but we won’t really know how much. The best thing to do would be to look out for the person who _did_ know him, don’t you think?”

Lena nodded solemnly. “Lúcio, would you go get Jamie? Make sure he’s paid his last respects and all that before we cover him up?”

Lúcio walked off into the brush, returning a moment later with a red eyed Jamison trailing by his side. Jamie looked down into the hole, forcing his eyes closed and taking as deep a breath as he could before letting it out slowly.

“We figured it’d end like this, didn’t we?” He laughed softly, “Probably should’ve gone up with the rest of that depot, maybe that was where we were supposed to be. But we didn’t, and here we are.”

Extending his hand, Lena passed him the shovel, watching silently as he started to shovel mound after mound of dirt into the hole, his best friend’s body slowly being covered up by the earth.

“I’ll make sure there’s a good fireworks show down the line for ya, I’m sure you’ll get a kick outta that.”

“Flash.”

Lena snatched up her Thompson, dropping to a crouch with Amelie by her side. “Thunder!”

“Well shit,” Reyes said, walking forward with a grin on his face. “We thought for sure we’d lost all of you, we’ve been waiting up north for the last few hours.”

“We had a setback,” Angela said, “Hana was wounded and Mako…”

Akande frowned. “What about Mako?” He followed the hand that Angela put out to her side, his eyes sweeping over their downcast expressions, Jamison’s tear filled eyes, and finally to the partially filled hole in the ground. “Ah.”

Sombra and Reinhardt stepped forward in shock, not able to believe that one of them was already gone until they saw the gasmask sticking out of the dirt. “ _Mein Gott_ …” Reinhardt said, “I am so sorry Jamison.”

“What happened?” Reyes asked, brow knitted in confusion as he tried to find the reason for what happened. “Was it an ambush?”

“No,” Angela said, pointing up. “A tree. He snagged his parachute and it snapped his neck. Nothing we could do.”

“Jesus Christ…” Reyes stepped away, looking off into the forest before growling, “Fuck!”

Sombra stood at the head of the grave, looking down at Mako’s body before bowing her head. “ _Padre nuestro, que estás en el cielo. Santificado sea tu nombre. Venga tu reino_ …”

Everyone was silent as she continued her prayer, no one there was sure whether or not they believed it would do anything, she herself wasn’t certain that she believed anyway. But whatever she could do for a fallen friend, no matter what it was or what she needed to do, she would do it to ensure that they were comfortable.

“ _Hágase tu voluntad en la tierra_ _como_ _en el cielo. Danos hoy nuestro pan de cada día._ ” She hadn’t practiced in a very long time, and she wasn’t even sure that this was the prayer you used for someone who had died. But it was the one that was burned into her memory, years of sundays and mornings spent with her _very_ religious _abuela_ had left it imprinted into the side of her skull.

Allowing herself a small break, she looked up to see everyone gathered around the grave, some kneeling, others with hands on each other’s shoulders, Hana and Lúcio knelt beside Jamison with their arms around him. Reyes though… there was no expression on his face, nothing except a slight crease to his brow and a frown. But his hands… she thought that if he squeezed his shotgun any harder it would shatter, his knuckles white and his shoulders shaking with barely controlled rage.

“ _Perdona nuestras ofensas, como también nosotros perdonamos a los que nos ofenden._ ” Reyes scowled, but allowed her to finish the last few lines of prayer. “ _No nos dejes caer en tentación y líbranos del mal. Amén._ ”

“That was very nice Sombra, thank you.” Reyes took a shovel, starting to push the dirt in when Jamison proved unable to do so. “But forgiveness? That’s not going to happen anytime soon. And ‘deliver us from evil’? That’s exactly what I’m going to give the Germans after this, every single one of them. I’m going to give them all the evil that I have in my body to make them feel the pain of this loss.”

“Gabe…” Lena said, hearing the tool creak from his tight grip. “ _Calm down_.”

“Calm down?” He tossed the shovel aside, staring at each of them with his eye twitching in anger. “Each one of you is worth a hundred of them to me. And if I lose any of you, you can be sure that I’m going to go and collect the hundred. Mark my words.”

“Yeah…” Jamison said flatly, meeting his gaze. “I get that. I think that we’ve got a debt now, and we should go get it.”

None of the others spoke, but they couldn’t deny that as bad as they felt Jamison would have been feeling ten times as worse. If there was ever an understanding for revenge, losing your best friend for nothing was it.

Even Lena couldn’t bring herself to say anything in protest, but she had to admit that she was worried about where this would go. A look between Amelie and Akande showed her two polar opposite reactions towards Gabriel’s declaration. On Amelie’s face, the passive acceptance of a soldier who was prepared to use the tool they had been given to achieve the goal that one of their superior officers had given them.

And on Akande’s, the smirk of a man who had been on the delivering end of retribution more times than he had bothered to count, who had lived their career ankle deep in blood and was clearly addicted to the rush of it all. He was the superior officer, if he wanted Reyes to step in line it would have been as easy as saying one word, “No.” Which told her all she needed to know about what their next objective was going to be.

“One hundred men. No more, no less,” Reyes said, nodding to himself and picking his shotgun up again. “Each one for Mako, each one for us. Our goal was to make them afraid of the Allied military, well fuck that. From now on, our new objective is to make them absolutely terrified of _us_.”

“If we can find a road, there should be a patrol that comes through it in this part of the forest.” Sombra thought back to the very limited map that she had studied back at the base. “If we can grab someone from there he could tell us where one of their camps is, maybe a small base. Would be a good place to start, stock up on what we’re low on as well.”

Akande nodded. “Good plan. We’ll strike a blow and come out no worse for wear, does that work for everyone?” He looked at Lena, asking, “Do you have any issues with this Oxton?”

Lena clenched her fist, feeling the eyes on her as she tried to get her breathing normal and her heart rate down. She squeezed the grip of her Thompson, trying to find some way that she could protest, that she could convince them _not_ to give in to everything.

Then she looked at the grave, she saw the mournful anger on Jamison’s face and the growing sorrow on everyone else’s. And soon, she was feeling it as well, and all thoughts of protest left her mind.

“No Sir,” She said, “Let’s get to it already.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bummer. And in terms of what happens next, oh no.
> 
> Thank you for all your comments and your kudos, it really makes me happy to see so many positive reactions to this story! I hope you liked this one, and all the ones to come!
> 
> [Here's](http://historynet.com/wp-content/uploads/image/2011/MH/JAN/HandTool.jpg) the entrenching tool that they use for digging the hole. In a snap you could use it as a weapon too. Reinhardt is pretty good with them.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings in the end notes

“They’ve been gone a long time, you think they’re alright?” Hana sat back against the tree, checking the slide on her pistol religiously and idly blowing a bubble.

“Relax,” Gabriel said, “Oxton and Sombra’ll be fine, they’ve got Lacroix watching their backs.”

“Hope so, I like them.” She continued popping her gum, eventually leading Gabe to look at her in shock.

“Wait, where’d you get that?”

She raised her eyebrow at him. “Get what?” _Pop._

“‘Get what’... the gum, where’d you get that? Rationing cut us off.”

“Sombra got it for me, I dunno where but she gave it to me before we took off.” She tilted her head at his scowl. “You want some?”

He held his hand out, turning his head to watch the road. “Yeah, I want some.”

“Wonder how that’s going,” Lúcio said, “The Amelie and Lena thing, kind of a rough honeymoon period.”

“Yeah…” Hana looked at him in confusion. “Wait, did they have sex or something?”

“I… yeah.” He looked at Gabe, who only stared back at them in amusement. “Were you… they came back with _no pants._ ”

 _Pop._ “I didn’t want to open my eyes for most of the day Luci, I’m sorry I missed seeing the big French ass alright?”

Lúcio snorted, “Don’t apologize to me, apologize to yourself. I mean I consider myself a bit of an expert, but man, she just looks-”

“I would stop right there,” Akande said, walking up with his arms crossed and a small smirk on his face. “Unless you would prefer a .30-06 to take most of your teeth out.”

He shrunk, mumbling to himself as he shrugged, “I’m just sayin’ you know, girl looks good is all…”

“Sure kid, sure,” Gabe chuckled, putting a cigar between his teeth and flicking his lighter open. “Just remember to keep it in your pants alright?” He flicked his eyes between Hana at his feet and a sullen Jamison off in the distance. “Though maybe that’s just wishful thinking on my part…”

On the other side of the road where they had camped themselves, Angela and Fareeha huddled close, in equal parts watching both the road and the distant Jamison. “How is he?” Fareeha asked, making sure the bolt on her M1 was greased. “He can’t be taking this easily…”

“He buried his best friend last night, no one would take that easily,” She sighed, settling back against the tree. “At least he’s changed from depressed to wrathful, I’d be worried otherwise.”

“I know what you mean. Some soldiers… it just gets to be too much, I’ve seen it more than enough times.” Fareeha shivered. “I’d rather not see it here as well.”

“Do not worry my friends,” Reinhardt said, still managing to sneak up on them in spite of his massive size. “His mind is focused and his will is clear, the only hurt he desires to inflict is upon the enemy.”

“That’s another thing that I’m worried about,” Angela said, “I’ve seen more than enough people lose themselves to that as well. We have two of them leading us.”

A sharp whistle made them bring their heads up, Reyes spinning his hand and gesturing for them to regroup on him. They pushed off from their position, sprinting low and quick across the road towards him, arriving just in time to see the three scouts arriving back with them.

“What’s the word Ox?” Reyes asked, “You three see anything worthwhile?”

She grinned. “More than. Two supply trucks, one carrying men and the other carrying ammunition.”

“They stopped about two miles away to refuel and rest for a while,” Sombra said, “But they should be coming through here in the next half hour.”

He nodded. “Alright, looks like we’re in business. How many men?”

“Two in the cabs of each truck, fourteen riding in the rear truck.” Amelie tapped her fingers lightly along her rifle. “A kill shot on the driver of the front truck should be an easy ask.”

“Get into position and be ready to take the shot, after that just shoot whatever moves. Got it?”

“ _Oui,_ ” She replied, “And you?”

“We’ll wait for your mark, go.”

The others gathered close, waiting while he thought over things for a moment and cleared his throat, “Alright listen up, this is how we’re going to do this…”

 

The truck rumbled down the road, bumps on the dirt road jostling the passengers in their seats and making them curse their too loose helmets as they thumped back down onto their heads. Friedrich cursed his luck, having to ride with possibly the chattiest soldier in all of the _Wehrmacht,_ having listened to hours of the most inane conversation he had ever had the misfortune of listening to ever since he had moved out of home.

As they rounded the corner of the road, enough was enough.

“ _Mein Gott, halt deinen mund!_ ” He yelled, turning to the driver and a second away from punching him and running the truck off the road if he had to listen to one more story about his uncle Franz and his cooking disasters.

Before either of them got the chance to do anything the windshield spiderwebbed, a tremendous crack filling the air as the driver’s throat tore open, his carotid opening up and spraying blood all over the rest of the windshield and the side of Friedrich’s face. He screamed in horror, shoving the convulsing driver off to the side and reaching over to try and keep the truck on the road, but without any visibility he only succeeded in turning them into a tree.

The last thing he was aware of was the impact, and the feeling of glass cutting his back as he went through the windshield. Then it was only darkness.

 

As soon as Amelie took the shot all hell broke loose, Sombra, Lúcio and Reinhardt firing from staggered positions on opposite sides of the road into the front tires of the rear truck, the heavy vehicle swerving and slamming into the back of the ammunition truck. Carefully aimed shots from Fareeha and Hana snapped the driver’s head back with a few rounds deforming their skull, while an almost lackadaisical Reyes took advantage of their moment of stunned shock, walking up to the passenger side door, taking aim with his Ithaca and evaporating the passenger’s head above the neck.

Jamison tossed Lena two grenades as she ran past him, pulling the pins and popping the handles, looking into the back of the truck just long enough to see stunned recognition on the faces of the terrified soldiers before she threw them with all her might, hearing the grenades hit the metal of the back of the cab before she dove down to the ground and covered her ears.

“ _Scheiße, lau_ -”

The grenades detonated, shrapnel tearing through the canopy of the truck accompanied by a bone rattling thump, the bottom of the truck deforming slightly as the blast tore the rest of the covering to shreds.

“ _Mein bein! Jesus Gott mein bein!_ ” As quickly as it started, the ambush was already over, the only sounds now those of the many wounded in the back of the truck screaming about their legs and arms laying on the ground next to them, their blood mingling with those that were fortunate to have been killed already. Lena tried not to listen to it, they weren’t the first men that she’d killed, and they wouldn’t be the last, but that didn’t mean she had to relish in it.

Not like Akande, who cocked his shotgun with wicked glee as he jumped up onto the back of the truck and took aim, reloading twice by the time he finished off the last of the maimed soldiers. As long as she didn’t end up like that by the end of this, she figured, well, that was a win in her eyes.

Angela hopped up on the driver’s side of the front car, seeing the still breathing driver looking at her in utter agony. Seeing the state of his throat, and actually able to _see_ where his vocal cords had severed, she shook her head.

“Lost cause.” Pressing the barrel of her pistol to his temple, she gave him the only aid that she could, wiping away the blood from her cheek and holstering her weapon once more.

They regrouped in between the trucks, Lena choosing not to look into the back of the troop transport as she passed it by, able to smell more than enough evidence that she’d done her job right. All she had to do now was try not to focus on the bloody footprints Akande was leaving behind and wait for her next orders.

“Not that I’m one to argue about a success,” Hana said, opening the passenger door and letting the headless, bloody body tumble messily to the ground. “But weren’t we supposed to get one of these idiots _alive?_ ”

“Yeah that was… the mission…” Reyes scratched the back of his neck, sliding a fresh round into the chamber of his Ithaca. “Don’t suppose there are any still laying around?”

“Here’s one!” Sombra kicked Friedrich over onto his back, the young soldier hissing as the glass embedded in his skin pressed into his back. “He’s the one who took a nosedive through the front window.”

Reyes grunted, walking over and grabbing him by the scruff of his coat. “Perfect.”

Friedrich was tossed into the dirt in front of the rest of them, his sidearm being stripped and tossed off to the side. “ _Bitte nicht…_ ” He stared up in confusion at the group, recognizing the fatigues. “ _Amerikaner, ja?_ ”

“Yeah, sort of.” Reyes nodded. “ _Sprichst du Englisch?_ ”

“ _Ja,_ _ich meine…_ Yes, I speak english.” He raised his hands above his head. “Please… do not shoot me…”

“I’m not going to shoot you,” Reyes said, kneeling to his height. “You understand that? You answer my questions, I won’t shoot you.”

He nodded frantically, his entire body shaking with terror as he stared up into the rifles and pistols held at the ready if he made one wrong move. “I understand. I… I just want to go home.”

“Good, let’s get started then.”

Lena watched on as he started circling the soldier, shotgun held in one hand and his other scratching at his chin. Friedrich was too scared to follow him with his eyes, but he clearly didn’t like Reyes being somewhere he couldn’t see him.

“How about an easy one? Where is your base? Your… _feldlager_ or whatever?”

“I… I can’t tell you that. _Der Kommandant_ , he…” He screamed at the top of his lungs when Reyes fired his shotgun over to the side, cocking it and pressing the warm barrel to the base of his neck.

“Now see here’s the deal. I don’t shoot you, you answer my questions. That’s it, that’s a very simple exchange.” He thrust his boot between Friedrich’s shoulders, shoving him to the ground and holding the gun to his face. “What’s your name?”

“F-Friedrich! _Oberschütze_ Friedrich Weber!”

“Well then _Oberschütze_ Friedrich Weber, if you don’t answer my questions why should I bother keeping you alive, huh?” He lowered the gun until the barrel was resting against his cheek. “Now I’m going to get you back on your knees, you’re going to answer my questions, and then I’m going to pay my part of the bargain, got it?”

“ _Ja, ja…_ ” He exhaled shakily as the gun was taken away, Akande’s hand grabbing his chest and hauling him back onto his knees. “The base is…” He looked in the direction they had been travelling. “Ten kilometres that way, it’s just a small base, we keep supplies there.”

“What kind of supplies?”

“Ammunition, rations, that sort of thing. Enough for a battalion to live on for a month.”

Reyes nodded, thinking over the information. “How many men?”

Friedrich looked down, sighing, “ _Frage mich das nicht…_ ”

Sombra rolled her eyes, drawing her sidearm and pressing it into the space behind his ear. “Answer. The question.”

“Forty! Forty men, not counting us!” He nodded at Reyes, hands still held high. “MG42 facing entrance, guard towers around the perimeter. The rest of the men are held in reserve, the biggest issue is the radio in the base, they call through on that and, well… bad luck cowboys.”

“That’s it? You’re not leaving anything out are you?”

“ _Ich sage die wahrheit!_ ” Friedrich looked up in fear, his voice shaking when he asked, “Are you going to shoot me now?”

Reyes stood up, swinging his shotgun up to rest across his shoulders. “Nah, I said I wouldn’t shoot you, so I’ll keep my word.”

Friedrich breathed a sigh of relief, almost collapsing before he heard Reyes speak again.

“Jamison. Shoot him.”

Lena’s eyes widened, going to move forward before Sombra held her back. “You what? No don’t do this!”

Friedrich fell back onto his arms, trying to crawl away as Jamison stepped in front of him holding Mako’s trench gun. “ _Nein! Nicht schießen! Nicht schie-_ ”

Jamison pulled the trigger, slamming the gun forward with every shot until it was empty and the only sound left was his roar of anger. He spat into the dirt, reaching up and cradling the extra pair of dog tags around his neck, sniffling and turning away from the body at his feet.

“Let’s get out of here,” He said, “No point standing around here all day.”

“What the _fuck is this?_ ” Lena yelled, shaking Sombra off and marching up to Gabriel. “Is this what we’re doing now? We’re just executing _prisoners?_ ”

“What like you think they won’t do the same to us? You been reading the reports Oxton?” He leaned in, his eyes giving some sympathy but his tone hard as stone. “Aside from that, what do you propose we do with them? Trot them back to headquarters? _Let them go?_ Have them run away and tell their _Kommandant_ about us within the hour? What do you think?”

She growled back at him, “I _don’t know_. But whatever it is, we shouldn’t be doing... this.” She tore her gaze away from the ruined body in front of her, pointing back at the truck. “You want me to blow up a truck load full of soldiers? Fine, I can do that all bloody afternoon. But don’t ask me to support some bollocks like this!”

“Duly noted,” He snarled, “Next time one of these assholes kills one of us because of your bleeding heart _you_ can bury them yourself!”

“Alright you know wha-” She was ready to start swinging her fists when Amelie placed her hand on her shoulder, squeezing down and shaking her head.

“Lena… now is not the time for this, I am sorry.”

“I…” She sighed, looking between each of the members of her group who looked increasingly uncomfortable as time passed by. “Fine. But this isn’t over yet.”

“We can duke it out after we take this base, hell I’ll spend the entire night up if that’s what you want.” He snapped his fingers at Lúcio. “Go check the back of the ammo truck. What we need to do is find a plan for what to do, sure we can ambush a bunch of half asleep assholes but that’s a whole other game compared to assaulting a base.”

“Oh shit,” Lúcio said, pulling back the flap and staring into the back of the truck. “You guys are gonna want to see this.”

Reinhardt walked over, staring in and dropping his mouth open in shock. “ _Mein Gott_ … You could arm half of the partisans with this!”

“Bloody fuckin’ hell…” Jamison said, hopping up into the back and opening the crates. “You drop a match in here you’d probably blow you and half the German infantry to Timbuktu!”

“You think you can find a use for it?” Reyes asked, smiling at the grin that worked its way onto Jamison’s face once more.

“You bet your arse I can find a use for it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning: Blood and gore, detailed descriptions of trauma wounds, execution
> 
> Well boy, I had this in mind weeks ago, and with the event coming out some of the scenes in this chapter especially feel a little... uncanny if I'm being honest. Aside from that I hope you enjoyed this one, I had to have them do something shitty sooner or later, and I figured Gabe and Akande aren't the type to wait around on that.  
> Let me know what you thought, I always love reading through your comments!  
> (Also oh my god that new Reaper skin, his hair is exactly like what I was imagining for this, I need it!)


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're back! Trigger Warnings in the end notes!

“Everyone remember the plan? No do-overs once we start.”

Gabriel looked over his squad, checking for any signs of skittishness or second thoughts. They were a good group, that much had been proven from the truck takedown, but there was a difference between taking down two trucks and taking down an entire base, anyone in their right mind would be right to be nervous.

Thankfully, it looked like none of them were in their right minds. Morrison had picked a good batch at least.

His team was in charge of the initial approach, whereas Akande was going to be handling the grunt work once they were in the base itself. Much as it irked him he had to at least concede that if they were weighing by strengths Akande was in the right, though Gabriel would much rather be in charge of both groups just to be certain everything was going to run like a greased machine. Call him a perfectionist, but he just didn’t trust anyone as much as he trusted himself.

“I’m clear mate,” Jamison said, “Just pop and drop, let everything else go the way it goes right?”

Hana and Amelie nodded in agreement. Their roles were simple, just watch over the rest of the team and make sure they didn’t get shot going in. Easier said than done, but that could be said for their mission as a whole after all.

“Alright,” He said, “Let’s get in position then.”

****

“Once you are inside you are to kill every living creature you can find.” Akande’s approach to the plan was much more direct, though it couldn’t be said that no one understood what he wanted from them. “You are stronger, faster, more intelligent than the rank and file, I expect you to show them exactly how that is.”

Lena already knew it was futile, but she decided to ask the question anyway. “Prisoners?”

“None. You will put them into the ground or they will put you there, that is how our mission will play out.” He ran a hand down his face, and though none of them knew for certain they had heard certain things about how war was fought in the pacific. When he looked back up at them it was through the fog of memory. “If anyone surrenders assume that they are trying to fool you, then put two in their skull.”

“Anything we should be doing _aside_ from rampant death and destruction?” Lúcio asked, raising his hand, “Or are we just hitting and running?”

“Once we are through the initial entrance we will split into pairs to sweep through the rest of the base. The radio room and barracks will be taken care of, that leaves the mess hall and storage facilities as danger zones to be cleared, but I still want two pairs to check through for survivors.”

Lúcio raised his hand, nodding in agreement. “I can handle the radio room, I’m fast I can get in and out.”

“Ha ha! And I will come with you!” Reinhardt slapped him on the back, almost sending him careening forwards. “You are so small, you will need a shield!”

“I’m not… _that_ small!” Lúcio shook his head settling back against the ground and tightening his laces when he realized he had to hold his neck at a ninety degree angle to look up at Reinhardt. “...I guess I might be.”

Akande nodded, swinging his trench gun up onto his shoulders. “Good enough for me, Reyes and I will take the barracks, at this time of day most of the soldiers should be stationed there, I want to be absolutely certain that they have been taken care of.”

Fareeha frowned. “You don’t trust us to do a thorough job?”

“I trust myself more, that’s just something to get used to.” Noticing that Gabriel was looking over at him, he tilted his head in question before smirking at the nod of confirmation. “Is everyone clear on their roles? Good, let’s get to it.”

Lena blew a breath of air through her lips, scratching at the back of her neck and jogging to walk beside Jamie. “God, this is bloody mental isn’t it? Just… this whole plan that you’ve helped cook up?”

“Too bloody right it is mate,” He said, grinning as he swung himself up into the driver's seat of the truck and slamming the door behind him, “Gotta have a little bit of mental to make it all fun yeah?”

“I… guess so,” She said to herself, watching him drive off and humming to himself every step of the way. “Surrounded by fucking lunatics more like.”

****

The supply trucks were late, not late enough to warrant raising the alarm but late enough to at least be on guard. The two soldiers stationed at the entrance weren’t exactly on high alert, but as long as they kept the mg42 pointed outwards and kept their eyes up every once in a while, no one was going to do anything to change their routine.

They couldn’t be said to exactly be friends either, but teaching someone english was a good way to pass the time regardless of who they were. Especially if they didn’t know you were teaching them completely wrong.

“I… surrender?” The soldier leaning on the gun said slowly, thinking that he was learning how to woo a woman in a bar. “You are… like a horse?”

His companion smiled, fighting hard to keep it from becoming a smirk as he waved him on encouragingly. _“Ja ja, das ist gut.”_ Sure, it was a mean way to pass the time, but both their actual friends were taking their time with the supplies. Until they got back there wasn’t much choice but to entertain yourselves by any means necessary, like making someone think they were going to be able to address a superior in english. _“Sprich mir nach…_ ‘Hotdog, taxi, bottle’.”

“Hotdog… taxi… b-” His head snapped forward, or more accurately disintegrated from the nose up and, as his impromptu english teacher realized while he threw himself behind the sandbags, collapsing to the dirt below with a wet smack that sounded disturbingly like “Bottle”.

The gunshot echoing across the forest told him exactly what had killed his companion, if the sight of his skull shattering right in front of him wasn’t a dead giveaway. He thought that maybe he might still be in the sights considering the round came from a powerful rifle at what sounded like a considerable distance, meaning that there was almost certainly a scope that the shooter had spied them through. Though when the gate guard was felled with another shot that tore through his throat and left him scraping at the ground with his nails as he rolled around trying to keep his blood in, he figured that they had decided he wasn’t a target worth worrying about.

A fact that was rather insulting if he was being honest.

The second shot had come from the forest directly in front of him, at least half a kilometer if he was to hazard a guess. There wasn’t any way he was going to be able to hit them from here, but maybe he could get them to keep their head down until someone came who _could_ hit them. Angry enough to fight back, but not stupid enough to stick his head out, he reached up and curled his hand around the grip of the machine gun, squeezing the trigger and swivelling it from side to side to cover as much ground as he could. Each round leaving the barrel made a tremendous shock travel down his arm, each blast and snap of the air making way for the lead digging into his skull and setting his teeth on edge, but he had to keep going. He was supposed to be a gate guard, and if he couldn’t make it through _one_ firefight what kind of soldier was he?

One that yelped in pain when another round from their mystery shooter shattered the receiver of the mg42 and showered him with hot fragments of metal, a few of the rounds that had ready to cycle through cooking off and exploding at a closeness that you absolutely didn’t want to be at. No sooner had he snatched his hand away and pressed the burnt, bleeding skin to his chest did he hear another, lower thump, the mystery of what that could be answered as soon as the rocket sailed over him with enough force to knock the wind out of his lungs and sailing directly for the radio room. The entire wall of the structure was destroyed, turning into shrapnel and spraying whatever unlucky soldiers had been standing behind it, taking away their only hope of reinforcements or even just letting people know that they were dying. Under the withering misery of gunfire every second seems to be an eternity, and he almost couldn’t believe that the blood hadn’t even stopped pooling around the corpse next to him, from first shot to now only about twenty seconds had passed.

But just as he’d been ready to give up hope, to curl up into a ball and hope that whoever it was that was killing them would pity him and decide to spare him, he heard it. Faint, but growing steadily, the most glorious sound that he’d heard in weeks. The honking of a truck horn.

Someone, he didn’t know who but he hoped against everything that it was Friedrich, was driving through everything that was outside the fence and hoping to take refuge, but with the gate locked and closed there wasn’t any way that they were going to make it through. They would crash, then that bazooka would make short work of them, then they would be truly doomed without the extra weapons they were carrying.

_It’s all up to me._

Taking a quick breath and exhaling roughly before he could change his mind, he pushed off the ground and sprinted towards the gate, ducking to avoid the stray shots flying over his head as whatever force was out there finally decided to open fire on the rest of the base. Swinging his mp40 up from his hip and taking aim, he blasted the chains holding the gate closed and pulled them clear of the lock, throwing the gate open just in time for the truck to crest the hill in front of him.

For a moment he could tune out the bullets still cracking over his head, the feeling of imminent danger and the dead body still laying next to his feet. For just a moment, he could feel that he’d finally done his job.

****

_“Sunday, Monday or Tuesday,_

_Wednesday, Thursday or Friday,_

_I want you near,_

_Every day in the year!”_

Jamison sang at the top of his lungs, squinting through the still bloody windshield to watch the road in front of him, fingers tapping anxiously against the grenade in his lap. His part in the plan was coming up faster than he could believe, he was _really_ looking forward to finally doing something worthwhile in this absolute cockup of a mission. At least there could be some pretty fireworks.

The sounds of gunfire and explosions were clear through the trees, but when he finally rounded the corner and got a first hand look at the destruction that was only just starting he could hardly believe his eyes. It was _beautiful,_ and he was going to make it even prettier. Soon as he got through the gate that they’d gotten a look at when they were eyeballing the place earlier, that was going to be one hell of a thump that he’d have to prepare for, especially with that mean looking chain that he could see still looped through the metal.

Or… maybe it wouldn’t be, considering that one of the soldiers had just blasted it apart and was swinging the gate open like he was being greeted. Definitely not the outcome that Jamie had expected.

“Bloody hell is this yobbo doin’?” He asked himself, retrieving the luger from the passenger seat and lazily taking aim. The first shot almost made him jump clean out of the window, the report deafening in the closed compartment of the truck and joined by the shattering of yet more glass. He fired two more times, each of the shots thumping into the bewilderingly helpful soldier’s chest and sending him down to the dirt, the truck rocking briefly when it rolled over his body and kept driving.

_“Oh, won't you tell me when,_

_We will meet again,_

_Sunday, Monday or always!”_

Skidding around sandbags and fleeing soldiers that were being picked off one by one, Jamie had a clear line directly to the barracks, his foot moving from the gas pedal and replaced with the small crate of luger rounds that he’d co opted for this exact occasion. It had taken a while to load all the ammunition and weapons into the truck that they hadn’t sent directly into a tree, but the plan was going swimmingly enough so far, the grenade held tightly in both his hands as he kicked his door open and stared down at the rapidly moving dirt below.

“Bloody hell,” He groaned, “This is gonna smart.”

One last turn to correct his course after he hit another soldier and he was ready to go, glancing down at the grenade quickly before pulling the pin and tossing it into the back of the truck. Right on top of a crate of _Panzerfausts._

_“No need to tell me now,_

_What makes the world go 'round…”_

Gritting his teeth and shutting his eyes, Jamison threw himself from the truck, tucking into a ball to soften the landing as best he could, not having much effect once he hit the dirt and launched back into the air in a display that would have been comical if it wasn’t so painful. Though what else could you expect when you threw yourself from a truck going sixty miles an hour? Thankfully he slowed down enough not to be too hurt when he slammed into a stack of sandbags, hard enough to blast all the breath from his lungs and maybe bruise a rib, but without much in the way of further injury.

Besides, what did he have to complain about? The plan had just gone perfectly, and he was finally starting things off with a bang. Rolling over onto his back, he smiled into the open air let his body go limp for a moment, waiting for the beauty to show itself.

 _“..._ _When at the sight of you,_

_My heart begins to pound and pound.”_

With no one at the wheel the truck started to veer to the left, but before it could go off course it impacted with the wall of the barracks, the shriek of tearing metal and the dull thump of shattering brick accompanying the climactic death of the engine block. The rear tires left the ground, the entire frame twisting and breaking under the impact of the sudden stop, beds and soldiers who still hadn’t managed to get out of the way being shoved away and crushed underneath the weight of the wall and the truck, the survivors on the other side of the room getting a second to stare in surprised terror at the sight of ammo crates and grenades being flung through the cloth canopy before the entire world went white.

As soon as the rest of the team had seen Jamie throw himself from the truck they ducked and covered their ears, the driver himself curling up behind the barrier of sandbags, plugging his ears and holding his mouth open. He wanted to _cause_ the explosion, he didn’t want to _be part of it._ Though he damn near was, the resulting explosion from such a concentrated amount of explosives not only borderline disintegrating the barracks, the resulting shockwave hit him like a freight train even through the sandbags, toppling the barricade on top of him and leaving him buried in stunned silence. He could only able to stare up at the small mushroom cloud that contained the remains of the truck and what must have been a sizable portion of the ground, grinning widely with a tear in his eye before passing out completely.

“That one’s for you big guy…”

****

From her perch up on the hill, about two hundred meters in front of Amelie, Hana could only gape in awe at the sight of destruction, fire and pieces of brick raining down on the rest of the base from where there had been an entire building, but now was only scattered rubble. Her first thought was worry for Jamie, he was insane and had taken more than a few knocks in training but no one was invincible, and looking at how close he was to that explosion there was more than enough reason to be scared of what they could find down there.

“Don’t be dead you idiot,” She snarled, taking aim at the main headquarters just as the front doors were thrown open. The demonic bark of the mg42 was something that every single one of them had come to fear over the last few years, even being on the other side of one still made her skin crawl, but at least she could get some sadistic glee from being the one to turn it against the usual users. Dirt and dust kicked up off the ground in front of the squad that had just emerged to help their comrades, withering gunfire slicing one mostly in half at the waist and taking another's arm off at the shoulder. The other three didn’t last much longer, one dying to a stray round smashing between his eyes while the others were dropped by two methodical shots from deeper within the forest. The soldiers that had been fortunate enough not to be leading the charge retreated back into the headquarters, deciding that their chances of survival were much higher if they holed up for defence. They were aware that it wasn’t improving their chances by much however.

Under the cover of Amelie and Hana’s gunfire, the rest of the group pushed through the front gate and further into the base, weapons at their shoulders and peppering the aimless enemies still caught out in the open and reeling from the recent explosion. Lena didn’t find much joy in shooting men who didn’t even have their weapons in their hands, but Akande and Gabriel had been right that they couldn’t take prisoners, not logistically. Morally was another matter, but she wasn’t so naive to think that those had any chance of being the same thing in this war. With Sombra at her side though she couldn’t afford to think about how wrong or right her actions might be, the two of them taking cover on either side of the entrance to the headquarters and peeking slowly around the corner. Lena was glad that she was so fast, even still barely managing to pull her head back before the frame shattered from a rifle round, the soldiers who had retreated inside seemingly dedicated to not having anyone advance on what little territory they still held.

_"Verpissen dich Amerikanisch!”_

Lena scowled, checking the magazine in her Thompson and shouting back, “I’m not even bloody American!”

“Really?” Sombra drawled, “No one could ever tell. Fareeha! Get over here!”

Squeezing off two shots from her carbine at a fleeing soldier, Fareeha turned her head and saw her two comrades under fire. Patting Angela on the shoulder and readjusting her bazooka on her back, she jogged over while keeping her head low, sliding low on the wall next to Sombra and nodding to them both.

“What do you need?”

“Need to get down that hallway, you still have ammo for that launcher?”

Fareeha nodded, Angela picking up on the unsaid request and pulling out a round from her pack. Waiting patiently for instructions, they almost leapt in when Sombra poked her head quickly around the corner, taking note of the positions that the soldiers were in and what the layout of the hallway was.

“They’re all behind some cabinets at the end of the hall, right in front of the wall.” She looked over at Lena, grinning at the confirmation that her weapon was loaded. “We’ll pin them down, you blast them while they’re keeping their heads down, sound good?”

“Just say when,” Fareeha said. Angela had already loaded the round into the back of her M1, wires connected to the tube and ready to fire. Angela had her own weapon ready to fire, though she was more focused on watching their backs and making sure no one was looking to take advantage of them. With the onslaught that Hana and Amelie were providing, there was surprisingly little danger.

Sombra took a deep breath, nodding over at Lena and swinging her barrel around the corner. “Now!”

The hallway lit up with the flashes and roar of gunfire, each of the soldiers having to throw themselves to the ground to avoid being torn apart by the heavy .45 rounds of the Thompsons, deep gouges opening up in the walls and floor in front of them preventing them from even thinking about getting a shot off.

“Get down!” Fareeha yelled, stepping around the corner and taking aim. Her three comrades looked away and covered their ears, feeling the thump of the explosion through the walls they were leaning against, Fareeha barely still standing after being smacked with the force of the shockwave and heat, the hallway in front of her little more than a smoking and bloody cavern. Unlike the grenade trick that Lena had pulled on the truck earlier that day, there wasn’t any screaming to be heard. There wasn’t much resembling men either, but Sombra still shot what she could see just in case, just because someone didn’t have legs anymore didn’t mean they couldn’t still shoot a gun after all.

 _“Huele a mierda,”_ She said, waving her hand in front of her nose, “When I was sitting behind a desk I didn’t have to deal with this smell.”

Lena snorted, firing a burst into a pile on the floor that _might_ have been moving. “Didn’t you shoot some of your coworkers when you were still sitting behind a desk?”

“Not exactly,” She said, grinning widely, “I had to stand up to get one of them.”

Lena heard shuffling behind one of the walls to her right, pointing her Thompson from the hip and spraying a line through the plaster, the heavy thud and pool of blood forming along the edge of the nearby doorway telling her that she’d hit her target. “You know someday you’re gonna tell me why you did what you did.”

“Hmm, maybe…” Sombra walked ahead, checking her corners and nodding when the first floor was clear. “Someday you’re going to admit that you enjoy parts of this too.”

She was tempted to disagree, she didn’t think much of the way they had treated their mission so far, and senseless killing wasn’t exactly in her list of favorite things to be a part of. But… she was aware that she’d had a smile on her face ever since the first bullet had sailed down that hallway towards them, certainly _some_ part of her was enjoying this to some extent. But that was a topic far too heavy to get into now, especially when she needed to remain focused, so instead of agreeing or disagreeing she merely shrugged, patting Sombra on the shoulder and advancing slowly up to the second floor.

****

With the resulting gunshots and screams muffled from far away, Akande and Gabriel had finally reached the barracks and shoved their way in through the front door. With their shotguns raised at the ready they’d expected a greeting party made up of mp40’s and shouts of frantic German, but evidently they had all collectively underestimated how destructive the contents of the ammo truck would turn out to be, the only thing greeting them when they entered the main barracks being sunlight and the burnt remains of a few unlucky soldiers.

“Huh,” Gabriel said, lowering his gun when it became clear that there weren’t any threats to speak of, “Guess our job was already finished.”

“The Rat’s plan was more successful than I’d thought, I didn’t think it would actually work that well.” Akande walked in slowly, head still on a swivel but his gun held casually at his hip. “There’s not much to be found here at-”

The sounds of pained coughing from the barely standing door on the other side of the barracks caught their attention, guns up and their boots heavy against the floorboards as they made their approach. A quick nod between them and the door was kicked down, Akande sweeping through the left while Gabriel took the right, though it was immediately apparent that the source of the coughing hadn’t been attempting to hide their position beforehand _._

 _“Hilfe…”_ The only moving body on the floor was trying to crawl away from them, a process made extremely difficult with one arm and a hole punched through the base of their back, only able to muster enough strength to scrape their nails against the wooden floor and mutter that one, single word. _“Hilfe… Hilfe…”_

“Jesus…” Gabriel grimaced, almost not able to look at the sight in front of him. He would be the first to admit that his sympathy for the enemy was low but… feeling nothing at a moment like this would have been callous even by his warped standards. Akande however had no such compunctions, marching up and flipping them roughly onto their back, ignoring their whimper of pain and staring down into the unburnt side of their face.

“Where is the nearest outpost?” He asked, _“Vorposten? Ja?”_

“What the fuck do you think you’re going to get out of him Akande?” Gabriel asked, pointing down at the remaining eye that was staring dead ahead. “He can’t even fucking see you right now, you think he’s going to give you any answer that isn’t ‘Kill me’?”

“I think I’m going to make him try,” He answered, pulling out his trench knife and pushing it into the patch of unmarred skin at the soldier’s shoulder. That got more of a reaction compared to before, a whimper turning into a wail of pain before Akande struck his hand across his face. “Outposts! Where are they? Forces in the area! Where are they?”

Gabriel clenched his teeth, allowing the display for a moment longer before pulling his sidearm, walking up and aiming down, squeezing the trigger and planting a bullet between the wounded soldier’s eyes, the shrieks and wails finally quieting down for good. The move hadn’t exactly surprised Akande, though he still made his displeasure known through a click of the tongue.

“You just wasted a potential asset Reyes, I thought you were smarter than that.”

“No, what I did was stop you from wasting time. We’ve got a mission to take care of, we still don’t know where Jamison is, and you’re trying to dissect the enemy. I don’t care what Morrison said, that sort of shit right there will _not_ fly, understood?”

He raised an eyebrow, regarding the Second Lieutenant in front of him. “Funny, you displayed an impressive capacity for brutality not two hours ago. Is it only justified when you do it?”

“What I did was interrogate someone who was _lucid_ and had their entire body still attached, not terrorize someone who is two breaths away from knocking on heaven’s gate.” He stepped closer, making it clear that he was not going to be questioned on the matter. “This is not Peleliu Akande, you’re not just going to torture and kill for kicks. If it serves the mission, sure, go ahead. Cut one of them apart, see if I care. But you’re not going to turn into Jack the Ripper on my watch.”

Akande scoffed, tilting his chin up and looking down at Gabriel. “You would do well to remember that _I_ am the superior officer on this mission, not you.”

“And _you_ would do well to remember exactly why I’m here to begin with.” Gabriel pushed his finger against his chest for emphasis, looking directly into his eyes all the while. “The minute you put the rest of us in danger, the minute your blood lust comes before the mission or our lives, I’ll show you personally how I handle the chain of command.”

He shoved past him, stepping over the body and walking towards the entrance they had come in through, there was nothing alive inside of here except for the two of them, they could be more useful elsewhere. Gabriel paused at the doorway, looking back over his shoulder and speaking flatly, “I asked some of the soldiers what you were there for before we left. We can get along, and you could be a good leader here, but out of all of us you’re the one who deserved to be hung the most. The shit you did…”

He shook his head, leaving Akande to think over his words in the presence of only corpses.

****

“Damn, they really brought this place down,” Lúcio whistled, ducking under a fallen beam and sweeping the half-collapsed room with his weapon, “We’re supposed to find intel in this?”

Reinhardt lifted the beam and pushed it easily to the side, squinting from the glare of the slowly dying fires as he walked in deeper. “German engineering my friend, there will still be much for us to find!”

“German engineeri- man reports are still made on paper! We just set this place on fire!” Lúcio laughed, “German engineering, what did you make your trees outta metal?”

“Perhaps we did,” Reinhardt said, enjoying the momentarily bewildered look that passed over Lúcio’s face before laughing himself, “Ah you are too easy! You mustn’t believe everything you hear!”

“Two weeks ago I was in front of a firing squad, now I’m further into Germany than the allies have ever touched with a group of psychopaths that have done _way_ worse things than I did,” Lúcio chuckled, tapping Reinhardt on the back and walking forwards, “At this point I’m liable to believe just about anything.”

Pushing open the door to the radio room with his foot, Lúcio was caught momentarily off-guard by the wave of heat that rushed out at him, eyes watering and his hand coming up instinctively to shield his face. The far wall was completely ablaze, and it was to their immediate dismay that they saw it was the wall that each of the file cabinets was leaning against, dashing their hopes of getting any paper intelligence. The radio wasn’t in any better condition, about as good as its operator in fact, scattered across the floor and clearly unusable. Remarkably intact considering that it had taken a near direct hit from a bazooka, Reinhardt hadn’t been lying about German engineering after all.

“Dammit,” Lúcio said, stepping through the door and sighing at the destruction in front of him, “Guess this was a wash then.”

So focused on the destruction in front of him, he neglected to check behind the door that he had come through, a grievously wounded soldier braced against the corner and staring at his back with a venomous glare. The roar of the fire covered up the sounds of the luger being drawn, the soldier stepping forward shakily and raising the weapon until it was aimed right behind Lúcio’s ear.

When Reinhardt stepped through the door his eyes immediately went to the gun, eyes going wide and his mouth forming into a shout of warning, his foot flying out at the same time that the trigger was squeezed.

Lúcio pitched forward with such force that he could swear something was sprained, though that was nothing compared to the searing pain of his eardrum rupturing from the gunshot, the bullet slicing clean through his earlobe and taking a generous chunk of the cartilage with it. He was in so much pain when he slid across the ground that he couldn’t even scream out at first, though when he started and couldn’t hear anything other than a high pitched whine it only shot his panic levels higher.

Reinhardt meanwhile had become the focus of the wounded troopers wrath, twisting his body to the side just in time to avoid being shot through the heart, the slug tearing a line across his chest and turning his previous expression of worry into one of murderous anger.

 _“Schweine!”_ He yelled, sending his fist flying into his enemy’s teeth and knocking the entire front row loose, his other hand going for the entrenching tool at his hip and swinging for their wrist with all his might. The sharpened edge of the tool sliced through muscle and bone as easily as butter, reflex closing it into a fist and firing off one last shot into the ceiling, not having enough time to process the pain before he swung again and buried it halfway through their skull.

Pressing his foot against their chest and yanking the tool out, Reinhardt placed it at his hip and ran over to Lúcio, still on the ground clutching at his ear, almost hyperventilating when he saw but didn’t hear Reinhardt kneeling at his side, his rough skinned hand placed so delicately at the side of his face.

“Shh… be calm my friend,” He said, stroking softly along his cheek and motioning with his other hand to breath, “Everything will be alright, everything will be alright…”

Hefting him up into his arms, Reinhardt started the short trip to get him back out of the building where they had come in. It was clear enough that nothing was going to be found in here, and Lúcio needed medical attention sooner rather than later, the choice between continuing the mission and helping his teammate was no choice at all.

“Just be calm,” Reinhardt said, cradling him against his chest, “Help will be with you soon.”

****

“Whew,” Angela grunted, wiping blood from her cheek when they stepped back out the doors, “After this I think we could all use some rest.”

“You seem a lot more lively,” Fareeha said, allowing herself a small smile, “No offense but you seem… pretty sad most of the time.”

“I just now realized that I wasn’t going to be executed anymore, if I die it’s my own fault.” She smiled, and just like every other time she did it Fareeha felt both happier and much more worried. “And I have a team that seems to know what they’re doing, I can let myself feel some things again.”

“Oh?” Fareeha scratched the back of her neck, staring out at the smoking battlefield that had once been a base before turning back to her. “What kind of thi-”

“Medic!”

They snapped their attention towards the radio room, hearts dropping when they saw the small form of Lúcio cradled in Reinhardt’s arms, the blood across his chest making them immediately think the worst had happened. Almost instantly Angela felt everything good that she had been feeling suck out of her, leaving her only with her desire to do her job and the two legs carrying her towards him.

“What happened?” She asked, wincing at the ruin that had once been Lúcio’s ear. She allowed herself a small moment of hope seeing his eyes still open and moving, though she wasn’t going to relax just yet.

“A gun was fired next to his head, took off most of his ear.” Reinhardt placed Lúcio down on the ground gently, holding a calming hand over his forehead. “The bullet didn’t go through his head, just hit the ear.”

The rest of the squad saw the three of them knelt together, each of them coming running out of worry for their friend. Hana recognized him from up on the hilltop, herself and Amelie picking up their weapons and running in a full sprint down the hill, her mind had already been in a state of worry over what had become of Jamie, she didn’t need to be worrying about Lúcio on top of that.

“Move your hand please Reinhardt.” Angela turned Lúcio’s head away from her, inspecting the damage to the ear critically for signs of any deeper damage. The outer shell was never going to look the same, it would likely barely look like an ear through the scar tissue, but that wasn’t her main concern. The amount of blood pouring out meant his ear drum was almost certainly ruptured, though she had no way out in the field of knowing whether it was permanent or not. The possibility was high though that he had lost hearing completely in that ear, especially with what Reinhardt had told her.

Turning him to face her, she snapped in the air, making sure he understood before snapping her fingers next to his wounded ear. When he shook his head she knew that for now the prognosis was not exactly good, but a snap next to his other ear made his eyes go wide and the breath leave his lungs. Now _that_ was less of a bad sign to her.

“Lúcio?” She asked before leaning close, speaking directly into his ear, “Can you hear me?”

“Yeah…” He said, voice shaky as he exhaled a relieved breath, “Yeah I can hear you. Not… much, but I can.”

The group collectively sighed, even Akande ran a hand down his face to hide the relieved smile on his face. Reaching into her pack she pulled out a bundle of bandages and a syrette of morphine, poking it into his thigh before beginning the process of wrapping his wound. They could look into another solution later on, but really all that could be done was wrap it to prevent infection and stop him from agitating it.

Which was likely going to be difficult considering that Hana had finally made it to where they were.

“What happened?” She almost shrieked, falling to her knees next to him and taking his hand, “Wha- did you get _shot?”_

“He was shot in the ear,” Angela explained, placing her hand over Hana’s, “Please don’t shake him, he will be fine if we let him heal. If you want to speak with him then you’ll have to talk closely into his good ear.”

Even with everything that was going on, Sombra couldn’t quite hold her tongue, “Not like that’ll be different from usual…”

The look that Hana shot her may very well have made lesser people drop dead, though when it was answered only with a smirk it transformed into a blush just as fast. Rather than attempt a rebuttal or a defence she just leaned close to Lúcio, smiling to herself when he placed his hand against her hip and squeezed comfortingly. They were about to remember what was missing when Gabriel took the liberty of reminding them all.

“Alright, now that that’s sorted,” He said, _“Where the fuck is Jamison?”_

A weak groan from towards the barracks drew their eye, same with the wiry arm reaching through a gap in a pile of sandbags and waving weakly in the air. Lena and Amelie ran over, pulling one of the heavy bags off of the pile and revealing a very much alive and very much confused Jamison to the rest of them.

“Oh…” He groaned, rubbing at his head and rolling over onto his side, “What happened? Did I miss all the fun?”

“Yeah,” Lena said, “It was a real corker. Are you alright?”

“Yeah, yeah I’m fine. Just got a bit of a hard knock, that’s all.” He grinned, looking over at the smoldering ruin of the barracks. “Bloody hell, did a number on this place didn’t we?”

She nodded, kneeling down and helping him to his feet. “Couldn’t have done it without you Jamie. But Lúcio could use your help right now, he’s feelin’ pretty bad and he could use a little pick-me-up, yeah?”

“Lúcio’s hurt?” He asked, looking over towards the rest of the group and immediately marching over towards them. “Oh bloody hell mate what the fuck did you do that for?”

Amelie chuckled, standing next to Lena and watching as he took his own place at Hana’s side, holding both Lúcio and Hana’s free hands in his own. “He’s… charming, in his own way I suppose.”

“Oh?” Lena smirked. “Thinkin’ about getting a piece for yourself?”

“No. Absolutely not,” She said, “I have… different tastes.”

“Yeah?” Lena asked, nervous all of a sudden and barely able to keep the quake out of her voice, “What’s that then?”

“Equally as stupid,” She answered, after a moment reaching for Lena’s hand and cradling it lightly in her own, “Infinitely more charming.”

The two of them stood in the midst of a ruined battlefield, feet away from the rest of their gathered group and very much without a plan to speak of for where they went from here. But for now, just for a few minutes, they could allow themselves a moment to enjoy the peace.

They could already tell there wasn’t going to be much of that to speak of in the next few months.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning: Graphic violence, brief torture, graphic description of wounds, Major Character Injury
> 
> So here's another chapter of this little ditty, hopefully the long break hasn't made me rusty! Let me know what you think, personally I think that Akande is up to no good! And just why did Sombra do what she did?
> 
> The [MG42](https://www.rockislandauction.com/html/dev_cdn/62/1467.jpg) really did have a terrifying [sound](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ULHUdQU7tg), it's easy to see why all of them would have grown to hate it rather quickly.  
> Though on a lighter note who would have known that Jamie liked [Bing Crosby?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5KZfKWheTg)
> 
> See you next time, I promise it won't be as long to wait <3  
> [Tumblr](https://genderfluidintake.tumblr.com)  
> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/TheFluidWriter)

**Author's Note:**

> Here's an AU I never thought I'd make, but boy am I glad to be doing so!  
> This is an AU in terms of both Overwatch not being in WW2 and that the military isn't segregated by race and gender in this story. I could have gone into that, but honestly I want to have fun with this story, I don't really want to spend however many chapters outlining how shitty the military has been to its troops since inception.


End file.
